The Supreme Court of Canada begins to translate its old unilingual judgments

The Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada announces that 24 of the 6000 unilingual decisions rendered before the entry into force of the Official Languages Act, in 1970, will be translated into French for the 150 years of the court. However, A first judgment, rendered in the Roncarelli c. Meanwhile, Duplessis. Therefore, began to be adapted in the language of Vigneault, and should be made accessible on the court website later this fall, he said by statement on Tuesday. Similarly,

supreme court canada begins translate

This announcement full following the publication. Consequently, on June 6, of a report by the independent committee for the selection of the most relevant decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada before 1970, whose existence and composition had not been made public so far.

This working group. Furthermore, chaired by the retirement judges Marshall Rothstein and Clément Gascon, had received as a mandate to select around twenty unilingual judgments to translate as a priority. Similarly, He had started his work last January. Moreover,

After six months of work. Moreover, the Committee finally heard on 24 decisions among those most often cited by the Supreme Court, by the lower courts, by administrative decision -makers, by lawyers, as well as among those who are most relevant to teaching law and the most consulted by the general public.

Too expensive translate 6000 judgments?

In its press release. However, the registrar’s office supreme court canada begins translate recalls that before 1970, the Court usually made its decisions in the language in which the case had been argued. However. the highest court in the country withdrew from its website all unrelakeed decisions on November 8, after the Federal Court deposit, a week earlier, of a prosecution launched by the Organization Collective Rights Quebec (DCQ).

The latter had then justified his approach by relying on two overwhelming reports of the Commissioner for Official Languages. Raymond Théberge, who, in October 2021 and September 2024, had summoned the registrar’s office to comply with the law.

The Supreme Court had each time refused to obey. arguing that the translation of judgments in question would cost too much, despite the additional sums provided for in the federal budget of 2024 to increase the capacity of the federal courts to provide translated decisions in French and English.

It had also argued – supreme court canada begins translate this is always the case – that the Official Languages Act was not retroactive. an argument that Commissioner Théberge had not contradicted, who had rather pleaded that it was the publication of these decisions on the web that posed a problem.

Among the 24 judgments mentioned by the Rothstein-Gascon committee. 17 were only written in English, while the other 7 were partly written in English and partly in French. None of the decisions to be translated in priority has been written in French only. Seven judgments are federal. The others concern Quebec (7), the Western provinces (4), Ontario (3) and the Maritimes (3). The committee. however, underlined in its report that with regard to the work he has done and the methodology he followed, several other decisions [mériteraient] also special attention and translation.

French versions without official character

The press release sent Tuesday by the Supreme Court does not say supreme court canada begins translate when these judgments are translated. only that this initiative is undertaken on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2025. Once the decision in the Roncarelli c. Duplessis will have been made accessible in French, this fall, the others will follow as their translation is finished.

The adaptation of this judgment. which appears in the report of the Rothstein-Gascon committee, had been initiated before the establishment of the latter, it is said, without specifying the date of training of the working group in question. The translated decisions will not however have an official character. since they cannot be approved by the judges who rendered them, they all having died, mentions the registrar’s office.

The press release. finally, said nothing of the thousands of unilingual judgments which have not been selected by the Rothstein-Gascon committee. It is not known if they will be translated supreme court canada begins translate secondly. once the French versions of the 24 decisions deemed priority are completed.

DCQ maintains its appeal

Called to comment on this new development on Tuesday. the president of DCQ, Daniel Turp, praised the announcement of the Supreme Court, declaring that it was a small step in the right direction.

“It proves that when civil society is organizing, it can make things happen,” he said. “We realize that we did well to continue, because otherwise, there would not have been any translations,” added Turp.

The prosecution brought by its organization, that said, will be maintained. We keep the course, because it is a question of principle, he argued. Mr. Turp said he was notably shocked to read that the French versions of unilingual decisions made before 1970 will. not have an official character. This is one of the many questions that DCQ will want to deepen in Federal supreme court canada begins translate Court, he said.