o What is an official language minority o What rights does the CCRF give official language groups o What impact has Minority education rights had in Alberta

 A group that speaks one of Canada’s two official languages and that does not make up the majority of the population of a province or territory  In all provinces except Quebec, Francophone are the minority language group  In Nunavut, both English and French are minority language groups

 Section 16 and 20 of the CCRF establish English and French as the official languages of Canada  These sections also establish New Brunswick as officially bilingual  Section 23 says that a sufficient minority speaking population in any province has the right to publicly funded schools to serve their language minority  arter.text.html arter.text.html

 The Quebec Act in 1774 Recognized the rights of Francophones to their language and identity  The BNA Act in 1867 Establishes Canada as a bilingual, bicultural nation  The Official Languages Act in 1969 Reasserts the equality of French and English as official languages of Canada

 In 1983 Francophone parents in Alberta launched a Charter challenge for the provision of French language schools in Alberta  The first two publicly funded Francophone schools opened in Edmonton and Calgary  The court case took until 1990, and the Supreme Court upheld this right

 Today Alberta has 26 publicly funded Francophone schools governed by five school boards  Wolf Creek Public Schools have no Francophone Schools but do have French Immersion Schools in Lacombe  

 In 1977, Quebec passed Bill 101, was designed to protect and promote the use of the French language in Quebec  As a result of the CCRF, there were two notable challenges to Bill 101

 The rule was, commercial signs may only use French  Using Section 23, Anglophone businesses seek the right to use English on signs in 1988  Decision: The law can require signs to use French, but cannot prohibit the use of English in addition. The law can require French to be more prominent than English. ml?id=39ecfa76-37a9-499f-97ce-c398a18dce88 ml?id=39ecfa76-37a9-499f-97ce-c398a18dce88

 The rule was, Francophones and immigrants must send their children to francophone schools  Under Section 23, Francophone and immigrant parents seek the right to educate their children in English in 2005  The Decision Francophone parents do not have the right to English instruction. Immigrant parents have the right, if their children have already received some instruction in English