On December 8, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released a decision mandating that administrative decision-makers account for Charter values (as well as or instead of Charter rights) in their rulings whether bidden or unbidden by the parties before them.
S. 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the minority language educational rights provision, guarantees certain defined parents the right to have their children receive instruction in French or English as applicable. Parents who were not entitled to the right under s. 23 requested that their children be permitted to receive French instruction. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the Northwest Territories denied the request of the non-rights holding parents, presumably on the basis that they were non-rights holders – having no right to such under the Charter. The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories allowed judicial review of the Minister’s decision and remitted the matter back for the Minister to consider a balancing of the protections under the Charter. The Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories restored the Ministerial decisions. In Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest v. Northwest Territories (Education, Culture and Employment), 2023 SCC 31, Justice Côté, writing for a unanimous bench, allowed the appeal and referred the matter back to the Minister for reconsideration.
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