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.

A first judgment, rendered in the case RONCARELLI C. Duplessisbegan to be adapted in the language of Vigneault, and should be made available on the Tribunal’s website later this fallhe said by press release on Tuesday.

This announcement full following the publication, 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, chaired by the retirement judges Marshall Rothstein and Clément Gascon, had received the mandate to select twenty unilingual judgments to be translated as a priority. His work started last January.

After six months of work, 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 most relevant to the teaching of law and the most consulted by the general public.

Too expensive, translate 6000 judgments?

In its press release, the registrar’s office 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 these unfriendly 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 the judgments in question would cost too much, despite the additional sums provided for in the federal budget of 2024 for Increase the ability of federal courts to provide translated decisions in French and English.

It had also argued – 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 identified 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, stressed in its report thatIn view of 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 when these judgments are translated, limiting itself to saying that This initiative is undertaken for the 150th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2025.

Once the decision made in the case RONCARELLI C. Duplessis will have been made available in French, this fall, the others will follow as their translation is completed.

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.

Translated decisions However, will not have an official character, since they cannot be approved by the judges who made them, these being all deceasedmentions 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 secondly, once the French versions of the 24 decisions deemed priority are ready.

DCQ maintains his appeal

Called to comment on this new development on Tuesday, the president of DCQDaniel Turp, a greeted the announcement of the Supreme Court, declaring that it wasA small step in the right direction. It proves that when civil society is organized, it can make things happenhe said.

We realize that we did well to continue, because otherwise, there would not have been any translationswelcomed Mr. Turp.

The prosecution established by his organization, that said, will be maintained. We keep the coursecar This is a question of principlehe said.

Mr. Turp said he was in particular shocked to read that the French versions of unilingual decisions rendered before 1970 will not have official character. This is one of the many questions that DCQ will want to deepen In Federal Court, he said.