The Policy of Bilingualism in the Canadian Justice System and its Implications for the Standardization of French in Quebec

This article analyzes the policy of bilingualism in Canada as regards the working languages of the justice system and the right of access to the justice system in an official autochthonous language.  It then examines how this policy relates to the policy of standardization of the French language that the Quebec authorities have practiced for decades.  The article starts by analyzing the legislative mechanisms that have made it possible to recognize a series of language rights for minority communities speaking an official language (the Anglophones in Quebec and the Francophones outside of Quebec).  It then examines how the case law, emanating principally from the Canadian Supreme Court, has gradually modified the recognition of these rights.  Initially, case law held that the right to use one official language or another in the courts stemmed from a political compromise, without it being recognized as an authentic language right.  With the Beaulac ruling, these rights were given a wide-ranging, liberal interpretation, and it was considered an obligation of the State to provide the most favorable conditions for their development.  On the other hand, this state of affairs with respect to legislation and case law should be viewed in the context of the Government of Quebec´s policy for the standardization of French, which, in a province where French has been declared the only official language, must nonetheless recognize the rights of the Anglophones to access the justice system in their own language.