Mahé v. Alberta, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 342 is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

. The ruling is notable because the court established that section 23

Section Twenty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Twenty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Charter that constitutionally guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Quebec, and, to a lesser extent, English-speaking minorities in Quebec...

 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...

requires that parents of the official-language minority

Minority language

A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...

 in each province have the right either to be representated on the school board, or to have a school board of their own, in order to provide adequate protection for the education

Education in Canada

Education in Canada is for the most part provided publicly, funded and overseen by federal, provincial, and local governments. Education is within provincial jurisdiction and the curriculum is overseen by the province. Education in Canada is generally divided into primary education, followed by...

 rights of their children.

Background

Three Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

 citizens, Jean-Claude Mahé, Angeline Martel and Paul Dubé, were dissatisfied with the quality of the French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 schools provided by the Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

n government. In 1982 they submitted a proposal to the Minister of Education for a new French elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 that would be administered by a committee of parents within an autonomous French school board.

The Minister of Education told them that it was not in their policy to make such arrangements and so they suggested they try to do it through the public school board. The board rejected them. Mahé and the others brought an action against the government of Alberta for violating their right to a Francophone-run education system under section 23 of the Charter.

The questions before the Supreme Court were:

1. Have the rights of the Francophone population of Edmonton under section 23(2)(b) of the Charter been violated?
2. Do the rights under section 23 include the right to manage and control the schools? If so, what is the nature and extent of the management and control?
3. Does the provincial School Act violate section 23? If so, can it be saved under section 1
   Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
   Section One of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Charter that confirms that the rights listed in that document are guaranteed. The section is also known as the reasonable limits clause or limitations clause, as it legally allows the government to limit an...
   
    of the Charter?
4. Are the rights affected by section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867
   Constitution Act, 1867
   The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
   
   , section 29
   Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
   Section Twenty-nine of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of Charter that most specifically addresses rights regarding denominational schools and separate schools...
   
    of the Charter, and section 17 of the Alberta Act
   Alberta Act
   The Alberta Act, effective September 1, 1905, was the act of the Parliament of Canada that created the province of Alberta. The act is similar in nature to The Saskatchewan Act, which established the province of Saskatchewan at the same time...
   
   ?

Opinion of the Court

The Court held that section 23 guarantees representation on the school board, and exclusive control over the children's education with respect to culture; or it can guarantee a separate school board. However, there must be sufficient minority language population to warrant either level of protection. In this particular case, the Court decided representation on an existing school board would be sufficient, and held that this did not interfere with denominational school rights under section 29 of the Charter since it merely affected language.

The Court's unanimous decision was given by Chief Justice Brian Dickson

Brian Dickson

Robert George Brian Dickson, , commonly known as Brian Dickson, was appointed Chief Justice of Canada on April 18, 1984. He retired on June 30, 1990 and died October 17, 1998.-Career:...

 He began by examining the purpose of section 23 which is to "preserve and promote the two official language

Official language

An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...

s of Canada, and their respective cultures". The section was intended to be remedial so as to prevent the loss of a minority group's language and cultural identity and so must be interpreted in light of section 15

Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms contains guaranteed equality rights. As part of the Constitution, the section prohibits certain forms of discrimination perpetrated by the governments of Canada with the exception of ameliorative programs and rights or privileges...

 and 27

Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section Twenty-seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a section of the Charter that, as part of a range of provisions within the section 25 to section 31 bloc, helps determine how rights in other sections of the Charter should be interpreted and applied by the courts...

of the Charter.