Winnipeg – September 25, 2019 – Section 23 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms –which guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Quebec and to the English-speaking minority within Quebec – requires a generous and expansive interpretation that favours all official language minorities throughout Canada.

This is what the lawyerfor the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) will plead Thursday as the Supreme Court of Canada hears arguments in the case of Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique v. British Columbia, at proceedings taking place in Winnipeg, Man.

“The QCGN is showing solidarity with Francophone minority organizations in calling for a broad and generous interpretation of Section 23,” QCGN President Geoffrey Chambers declared. “We aim to remind the court that this section applies to English-speaking as well as French-speaking minorities and explain why management and control of minority-language education is equally important in the Quebec context.”

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