The Official Languages of New Brunswick Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Robert W. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Official Languages

scholarly journals Le régime juridique des langues dans l'administration publique au Nouveau-Brunswick

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-113
Author(s):  
Pierre Foucher ◽  
Gérard Snow
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Canadian Charter ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Linguistic Rights ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Legal Consequences ◽  
Recent Government ◽  
Linguistic Communities

Linguistic rights in New Brunswick have progressed since the enactment of the Official Languages of New Brunswick Act of 1969. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has caused the entrenchment of some linguistic guarantees in the Constitution and has provided for judicial enforcement. Collective rights have also been given legislative sanction through the passing, in 1981, of An Act Recognizing the Equality of the Two Official Linguistic Communities in New Brunswick, and new legislation to replace the 1969 Act has now been proposed in a recent government-sponsored study. This paper looks at the legal consequences of these enactments in relation to public administration in New Brunswick.

scholarly journals Pour réussir le bilinguisme judiciaire au Nouveau-Brunswick

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Michel Bastarache
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
The State ◽  
French Language ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Legal Proceedings ◽  
Provincial Level ◽  
The Status ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Legislative Measures

This article outlines the different attempts over the years to secure the status of the French language in legal proceedings in New Brunswick. A 1968 opinion reiterated rulings dating from 1650 and 1784 that English is the applicable language in all proceedings at the provincial level. Subsequent rulings have modified the state of events but in most cases on paper only. In 1980, the New Brunswick Association of Lawyers set up an investigative commitee whose tasks were to identify any inherent problems in the use of French in provincial courts and to find a way of integrating the two official languages into New Brunswick's legal practice with as little animosity as possible. The publication of the committee's report led to new legislative measures assuring the implantation of bilingualism in its provincial courts. Although legislators had hoped for speedier implementation of the measures, it is important to keep in mind the difficult context in which these changes are taking place. A change in attitude is apparently necessary before the transformation is complete.

scholarly journals Worlds Apart in Acadie: Official Languages Programs in Education in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 1968-1984

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-257
Author(s):  
Matthew Hayday
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Official Languages

Abstract Following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the Canadian and provincial governments undertook a wide array of measures to promote Canada's two official languages through education programs. Over the fifteen years following the passage of the Official Languages Act, minority and second official-language education programs developed in a markedly different fashion in the two provinces with the largest Acadian communities: New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. A combination of factors, including the demographic weight of the Acadian communities, the strategies of Acadian lobby groups, the attitudes of the majority and minority communities, and the ideologies of key politicians and civil servants must all be taken into account to explain the uneven development of official language education programs in these two “Acadian provinces”.

scholarly journals La valeur juridique du projet de loi reconnaissant l'égalité des deux communautés linguistiques officielles au Nouveau-Brunswick

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Bastarache
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
The United States ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Right Of Action ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right ◽  
Linguistic Communities

The principles that an Act Recognizing the Equality of the Two Official Linguistic Communities in New Brunswick would incorporate in the laws would be better put in the preamble to a constitution, because of their symbolic and educational value. They comprise two possible fundamental protections : the first is protection against discrimination (or the entrenchment of formal equality) ; the second is protection against assimilation (or resultant equality). It is this second objective which stresses the need for the recognition of collective rights in New Brunswick, such as the right to distinct social, educational and cultural institutions and, by implication, the need for the most advanced form of autonomy possible for each distinct linguistic community. One may wonder whether the Act gives the courts of New Brunswick a clear enough indication of the objectives of the Legislature to allow them to put aside the restrictive concept of equality developed in the interpretation of human rights legislation in Canada ? It would seem that the preamble to the Act limits its purpose to a declaration of principle. This legislative intent is best demonstrated by the fact that no section giving a right of action to citizens is included. The Act also has some very important limitations that result from various difficulties of interpretation. These difficulties are enhanced by the fact that the Act itself is not constitutional in nature. Section 1 borrows its language from Section 2 of the Official Languages Act of Canada, this section having been interpreted in a positive but uncertain way in Air Canada v. Joyal. Given the fact that the purpose of the Act, as set out in the preamble, is to create a set of political principles for the government of New Brunswick, it is difficult to see where it could be given a wider interpretation than the Canadian Bill of Rights with regard to the term « equality ». Whatever success was obtained in the courts has depended on the fact that the rights set out were in each instance very clear. Section 2 is the most difficult to understand because it gives no indication as to the means through which the government of New Brunswick is to ensure equality between the linguistic communities. The reference to distinct institutions is extremely uncertain and could only be given some legal force if the courts were to recognize that they have the duty to determine the true meaning of the section in a discretionary manner. But here the Act does not provide for any sanction and reflects the intention of creating declaratory legislation only. Section 3 is more or less a declaration of intent. The problem raised by the adoption of Acts of a declaratory nature was raised last year in the Forest case. The difficulty is that the declaratory judgment does not generally constitute an order given to the government or the Legislature to act in a specific way. In the United States, the Courts of Equity found that they could take into consideration the common interest in deciding whether there were obstacles to a mandatory order resulting from the application of declaratory legislation. In Canada, the courts have been very timid. One might ask whether the Act is likely to bring about a better understanding between the two linguistic communities of New Brunswick. Politically, it is obvious that the Act will not provide a true framework for political change. Legally, it can be said without doubt that the Act will not create any rights or bring about an era of judicial interventionism. However, even an implicit adoption of the concept of collective rights could mark a turning point in the relationship between the two linguistic communities in New Brunswick.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-95
Author(s):  
Ulrike Flader ◽  
Vera Ecarius-Kelly ◽  
Clemence SCALBERT-YÜCEL ◽  
Michael M. Gunter ◽  
Tozun Bahcheli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Rutgers University ◽  
Ashgate Publishing ◽  
Kurdish Question ◽  
Newcastle Upon Tyne

Cengiz Gunes and Welat Zeydanlıoğlu (eds.), The Kurdish Question in Turkey: New Perspectives on Violence, Representation and Reconciliation, London: Routledge, 2014, 288 pp., (ISBN: 978-0-415-83015-7).Almas Heshmati and Nabaz T. Khayyat, Socio-Economic Impacts of Landmines in Southern Kurdistan, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 341 pp., (ISBN: 978-1-4438-4198-6).Estelle Amy de la Bretèque, Paroles Mélodisées: Récits épiques et lamentations chez les Yézidis d’Arménie (Melodised speech. Heroic songs and laments among the Yezidis of Armenia), Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2013, 230pp., (ISBN: 978-2-8124-0787-1).Diane E. King, Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq, New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 2014. 286 pp., (ISBN: 9780813563534).Michael M. Gunter and Mohammed M.A. Ahmed (eds.), The Kurdish Spring: Geopolitical Changes and the Kurds, Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 2013, 344 pp., (ISBN: 978-1568592725).Derya Bayır, Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing House, 2013, 314 pp., (ISBN: 9781409420071).

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