Supreme Court sued over its refusal to translate decisions before 1970 into French

Lawyer Francois Cote, right, speaks as Daniel Turp, centre, and Etienne-Alexis Boucher of Droits collectifs Quebec look on during a media availability at Federal Court in Montreal, Friday. The rights group is taking the Supreme Court of Canada's registrar's office to court over its refusal to translate historic English-only decisions to French as required by the country's Official Languages Act (Sidhartha Banerjee/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The office of the registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada was served with a legal notice on Friday by a Quebec civil rights group challenging the high court's steadfast refusal to translate its historic decisions into French.

Droits collectifs Québec filed an application in Federal Court in Montreal after failing to get the registrar — which serves as the administrative body for the court — to translate the documents.

The lawsuit involves more than 6,000 decisions rendered between 1877 and 1969, the year the Official Languages Act came into effect, requiring federal institutions to publish content in English and in French.

The rights group initially filed a complaint with the official languages commissioner. In response, the Supreme Court, which has been translating decisions since 1970, argued that the law doesn't apply retroactively.

In September, commissioner Raymond Théberge ruled that while the law doesn't apply retroactively, any decisions published on the court's website must be available in both official languages. The failure to translate the judgments amounted to an offence under the act, he said, giving the high court 18 months to correct the situation.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner told reporters in June that the decisions before 1970 are primarily of historical interest, arguing they are "legal cultural heritage made obsolete by the evolution of Quebec and Canadian law." The court lacks the resources to carry out such an operation, he said, adding it would take a decade and cost upwards of $20 million.

The lawyer for the Quebec civil rights group disagrees.

"Court decisions constitute precedents, they bear legal weight, and they have legal meaning, and they will entail legal consequences in the present day," said François Côté, a lawyer from Sherbrooke, Que.

"Even if the law has changed, if new laws were adopted or laws were repealed … what about legal principles? What about legal reasoning?"

Côté's group points to a 1985 Supreme Court ruling that required the government of Manitoba to translate all of the province's laws passed since 1867, regardless of the cost. Etienne-Alexis Boucher, executive director of the group, says he doesn't understand the high court's refusal to translate its historical documents when it has forced other federal institutions to translate theirs.

While the Supreme Court has judicial immunity, the lawsuit instead targets the court's registrar, which is part of the public service.

A spokesman for the Supreme Court said Friday the office of the registrar would not comment since the matter is currently before the courts.

Boucher said his organization is seeking a public apology from the registrar's office to Canadian francophones for not respecting their linguistic rights, and a declaratory judgment recognizing the Supreme Court made a mistake by refusing to translate the historical rulings. As well, the group is seeking a judicial order forcing translations of the rulings within three years of a judgment, conducted by legal translators and not exclusively through the use of artificial intelligence.

The lawsuit is also seeking $1 million in exemplary damages, most of which would go to groups dedicated to preserving the French language.

Côté said it could take several months for the case to make its way through preliminary stages, but he is hopeful for an amicable settlement.

"We are talking about the gatekeeper to the Supreme Court," Côté said. "We are talking about one of the highest state institutions, which must be (held to) the highest, exemplary level."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.