Francophone Minority Communities

The Last Constitutional Standard-Bearers of Trudeau’s Language Regime

Datos Bibliográficos

ID20494233
AutoresEmmanuelle Richez (0000-0003-4688-1942, McGill University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Número45-46
Páginas35
Fecha de publicación2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Canadian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1180-3991 • E-ISSN: 1923-5291
EditorialConsortium Erudit (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.7202/1009893ar
OpenAlexW2040933234
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas22

The francophone and Acadian communities of Canada (hereinafter “FACC”) have until now been the primary constitutional standard-bearers of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s constitutional language regime by promoting non-territorialized bilingualism through Charter-based judicial review. However, this regime is slowly being eroded by stealth and can no longer serve the interests of the FACC. This article first explains how minority language rights were the cornerstone of Trudeau’s political project and how an ideological interdependence developed between him and the FACC. Second, it describes the importance of the post-1982 institutional context in furthering the FACC’s constitutional objectives. Third, the article evaluates to which extent these objectives were fulfilled by conducting a general survey of the Supreme Court’s Charter jurisprudence in the area of francophone minority rights and its political consequences. It concludes that the FACC have exhausted the potential of Trudeau’s constitutional language regime and must now move beyond it, if they want to ensure their future well-being

Charter · Constitutional law · French · Humanities · Ideology · Jurisprudence · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Supreme court · Canadian Identity and History · Criminal Law and Evidence · History · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law