Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The courts have recognized the right to manage minority language schools, and that has led to the creation of many francophone school boards in the provinces and territories outside Quebec. The courts have also acknowledged the principle of broad and liberal interpretation of constitutional and legislative language rights.
That's the first reason.
Second, in the next few years, the court challenges program will be essential in guaranteeing full implementation of the new provisions of Canada's Official Languages Act, a quasi-constitutional statute that was modernized in 2023 and that has been supported by all political parties. Since there are inevitable ambiguities in the modernized Official Languages Act, it will sooner or later be challenged in the courts. Litigation to determine the scope of the act is fundamental because, in a democratic society, the legislator legislates and judges, who enjoy judicial independence, interpret the scope of the statutes.
Third, in a collective law context such as that of language rights, it is intolerable that an individual should be compelled to bear the often significant monetary costs involved, sometimes running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to defend a necessarily collective right. Public funding is essential in the circumstances.
Fourth, anglophone Canadians who live in provinces and territories where their language is the majority language enjoy, perhaps unconsciously, the protection that a majority in a democratic system affords. This is the invisible benefit of the weight of numbers. Conversely, the absence of such a weight undermines the language rights of francophones living in minority communities. The court challenges program thus reduces the legal and monetary risks for francophones in minority communities. There are simply no such risks for members of the linguistic majority.
Fifth, the fact that the court challenges program promotes language rights in Canada, particularly in education, also has positive economic consequences because it promotes francophone mobility in Canada. For example, if there is a French-language school in an anglophone majority region, it's much easier for a francophone family immigrating or coming from elsewhere in Canada to move there.
Sixth, the very existence of the court challenges program may have a deterrent effect on any government that might wish to attack francophone minority language rights. By granting minorities access to monetary resources for the purpose of court challenges, the government guarantees that deterrent effect, which is not negligible. Furthermore, the court challenges program guarantees communities, francophone communities in particular, access to a minimum level of legal resources with which to affirm their language rights before the courts and to defend themselves against government organizations that enjoy far greater monetary resources.
Thank you.