LANG Committee Report
If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
OTTAWA, CANADA
K1A 0A6
REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
The Standing Committee on Official Languages has the honour to present its
FOURTH REPORT
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages is tabling a report to Parliament on the Contraventions Act and the agreements entered into by the Department of Justice with municipal, provincial and regional authorities. This matter was brought to the Standing Committee’s attention following the issuance by the RCMP of tickets in French only in the part of the National Capital Region located in Quebec.
On December 2, 2002, the Honourable Wayne Easter, Solicitor General of Canada, appeared before the Committee to discuss the matter. He was accompanied by RCMP Inspector Robert Boulet and by Marc Tremblay of the Department of Justice.
In accordance with section 22 of the Official Languages Act, all federal organizations, including the RCMP, must provide all their services in both official languages, within the National Capital Region. Section 22 states:
22. Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that any member of the public can communicate with and obtain available services from its head or central office in either official language, and has the same duty with respect to any of its other offices or facilities
(a) within the National Capital Region; or
(b) in Canada or elsewhere, where there is significant demand for communications with and services from that office or facility in that language.[1]
The Application of Provincial Laws Regulations, made on the recommendation of the federal Minister of Justice under section 65.1 of the Contraventions Act, authorize certain provinces[2] (including Ontario and Quebec) and territories to issue tickets and prosecute offences under federal Acts and regulations according to the procedures of the province or territory. Under section 65.2 of the Contraventions Act, the Minister of Justice has also entered into agreements with certain provinces with respect to the prosecution of contraventions, particularly the discharge and enforcement of fines. In delegating to provinces and territories the power to deal with federal contraventions in accordance with the applicable provincial or territorial criminal procedure, the Government of Canada omitted to provide for the enforcement of the quasi-constitutional language rights previously enjoyed by the accused, which are guaranteed under sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code (the right of the accused to be tried in the official language of his or her choice) and under Part IV of the Official Languages Act (the right of the accused to receive court services in the official language of his or her choice). Instead, the language rights of the offenders are governed by the provincial system of language rights.
The Committee points out that, in practice, these agreements as implemented do not provide sufficient protection for the rights guaranteed under section 22 of the Official Languages Act. The tickets that the RCMP is using in the parts of the National Capital Region located in Quebec are in French only, and there is only a notice, on the reverse side, indicating a toll-free telephone number, at which an English translation of the ticket may be obtained.
The Committee points out that agreements of this type violate the principle of equality of status and use of English and French recognized by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (sections 16 to 20) and by the Official Languages Act. Federal powers must not be delegated to provincial governments or municipalities in a manner that is detrimental to the language rights of Canadians under the Criminal Code and the Official Languages Act.
In 1998, the then Commissioner of Official Languages, Victor C. Goldbloom, with the consent of the Association des juristes d'expression française de l'Ontario (AJEFO), commenced an action in the Federal Court, arguing that the Department of Justice had failed to respect the Official Languages Act (Parts IV and VII) in the enactment and application of the Contravention Act amendments in 1996. In the decision he handed down on March 23, 2001, Mr. Justice Pierre Blais of the Federal Court ruled partly in favour of the Commissioner and concluded that the measures taken by the Department of Justice did not adequately protect the language rights provided by Part XVII of the Criminal Code and by Part IV of the Official Languages Act:
“A federal law of general application such as the Official Languages Act cannot be applied throughout Canada in a discriminatory manner, depending on who is responsible for applying the Contraventions Act. The language guarantees set out in the Official Languages Act and in the Criminal Code must therefore apply regardless of whether the Attorney General of Canada, the Attorney General of Ontario or the municipalities are given the authority to administer the Contraventions Act.” [3]
The federal government did not appeal this decision.
The Committee therefore asks Justice Canada to rectify the existing situation:
The Committee recommends that Justice Canada take the legislative and regulatory measures at its disposal to ensure that the language rights guaranteed under sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code and Part IV of the Official Languages Act are respected in the Contraventions Act and in all regulations and agreements that have been or will be concluded under this Act with a province or territory.
REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, your Committee requests the Government to table a comprehensive response to this Report.
A copy of the relevant Minutes of Proceedings (Meetings Nos. 4 and 15) is tabled.
Respectfully submitted,
Mauril Bélanger, M.P.
Chair
On behalf of the Canadian Alliance, I agree with the content of the committee's report. However, I believe that the report ought to have included a recommendation related specifically to the RCMP's unlawful practice of issuing French-only tickets in the Quebec part of the National Capital Region.
This is a clearly identified practice that clearly violates the guarantees of minority-language rights embodied in the Official Languages Act. It is incumbent upon the government to instruct its agencies to immediately cease to violate Canada's laws.
In practice, this could be done by the simple expedient of issuing an instruction to the RCMP to use only bilingual notices of infraction within the boundaries of the National Capital Region. According to testimony heard before the committee, this was the practice prior to the signing of the agreement under the Contraventions Act between Canada and Quebec, and it remains the practice in those parts of the National Capital Region that lie within Ontario.
I strongly recommend that the RCMP stop issuing unilingual tickets within the bounds of the National Capital Region, as is required under the provisions of Section 22 of the Official Languages Act.