The Supreme Court of Canada will issue a ruling today on the scope of provincial governments’ obligations to fund French-language education systems.
The Supreme Court of Canada will issue a ruling today on the scope of provincial governments’ obligations to fund French-language education systems.
The case revolves around a claim by some parents and a school board in British Columbia. They accuse the provincial government of denying their charter rights by systematically underfunding French-language schools.
Suzana Straus, who lives in Richmond, B.C., said it takes her Grade 9 son an hour to get to a school where he can take French instruction.
Straus said the provincial government’s policies are an obstacle for francophone parents who want their children to be fluently bilingual.
“It means, for many families, they will choose not to send their children to francophone schools,” said Straus, who is president of the Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique.
“They will choose to go to the local school and that means assimilation. And that saddens me tremendously.”
Mark Power, a lawyer who works in Ottawa and Vancouver, is representing the parents and the school board — the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique. He said the case has implications fo