145-620: The Senate Liberal Caucus ( French : Caucus libéral du Sénat ), also known as the Senate Liberals ( French : libéraux au Sénat ), was, from 2014 to 2019, a parliamentary grouping in the Senate of Canada made up of independent senators who were individually members of the Liberal Party of Canada and were appointed on the advice of previous Liberal prime ministers . The caucus was not formally affiliated to or recognized by
290-412: A "society where all people are equal and where they share some fundamental values based upon freedom", and that all Canadians could identify with the values of liberty and equality. The Charter ' s unifying purpose was particularly important to the mobility and language rights. According to author Rand Dyck (2000), some scholars believe section 23, with its minority language education rights, "was
435-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process
580-486: A bill of rights that would include: fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of movement, democratic guarantees, legal rights, language rights and equality rights . However, Trudeau did not want a notwithstanding clause. While his proposal gained popular support, provincial leaders opposed the potential limits on their powers. The federal Progressive Conservative opposition feared liberal bias among judges, should courts be called upon to enforce rights. Additionally,
725-594: A charter as contrary to the British model of Parliamentary supremacy . Hogg (2003) has speculated that the reason for the British adoption of the Human Rights Act 1998 , which allows the European Convention on Human Rights to be enforced directly in domestic courts, is partly because they were inspired by the similar Canadian Charter . The Canadian Charter bears a number of similarities to
870-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,
1015-590: A contrary law inoperative. Additionally, the Bill of Rights did not contain all of the rights that are now included in the Charter, omitting, for instance, the right to vote and freedom of movement within Canada. The centennial of Canadian Confederation in 1967 aroused greater interest within the government in constitutional reform. Such reforms would not only improve the safeguarding of rights, but would also amend
1160-459: A court finds that a Charter right has been infringed, it conducts an analysis under section 1 by applying the Oakes test , a form of proportionality review. Infringements are upheld if the government's objective in infringing the right is "pressing and substantial" in a "free and democratic society", and if the infringement can be "demonstrably justified". The Supreme Court of Canada has applied
1305-513: A failed proposal before the House of Commons of Canada that would have amended the Charter by removing the mention of God, as he felt it did not reflect Canada's diversity. Section 27 also recognizes a value of multiculturalism. In 2002, polls found 86% of Canadians approved of this section. While the Charter has enjoyed a great deal of popularity, with 82 percent of Canadians describing it as
1450-480: A federal statute, the Bill of Rights could be amended through the ordinary legislative process and had no application to provincial laws. The Supreme Court of Canada also narrowly interpreted the Bill of Rights , showing reluctance to declare laws inoperative. Between 1960 and 1982, only five of the thirty-five cases concerning the Bill of Rights that were heard by the Supreme Court of Canada resulted in
1595-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and
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#17327721828011740-438: A good thing in opinion polls in 1987 and 1999, the document has also been subject to published criticisms from both sides of the political spectrum. According to columnist David Akin (2017), while most Liberals support the Charter , most Conservatives , most New Democrats, most Indigenous people , and Québécois see the Charter as "problematic" and "something to be challenged in order to be Canadian". One left-wing critic
1885-520: A minimum of nine members is required for official caucus status , which entitles the grouping to access to funding for a research budget and other supports and privileges, the Senate Liberals were expected to lose their status as an official Senate caucus on January 24, 2020, when the mandatory retirement of Senator Joseph A. Day would have reduced the caucus to eight. Additionally, senators Serge Joyal and Lillian Dyck were set to retire from
2030-643: A number of ideas that would later be evident in the Charter , including the protection of language rights; exclusion of economic rights; and the allowance of limitations on rights, which would be included in the Charter ' s limitation and notwithstanding clauses. In 1968, Strayer was made the director of the Constitutional Law Division of the Privy Council Office , followed in 1974 by his appointment as assistant deputy Minister of Justice . During these years, Strayer played
2175-705: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on
2320-698: A prominent role in leading the popular opposition to the Accord. The task of interpreting and enforcing the Charter falls to the courts, with the Supreme Court of Canada being the ultimate authority on the matter. Litigation involving the charter may be referred to as a Charter challenge . With the Charter ' s supremacy confirmed by section 52 of the Constitution Act, 1982 , the courts continued their practice of striking down unconstitutional statutes or parts of statutes as they had with earlier case law regarding federalism. However, under section 24 of
2465-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in
2610-483: A result, the Charter has attracted both broad support from a majority of the electorate and criticisms by opponents of increased judicial power . The Charter applies only to government laws and actions (including the laws and actions of federal, provincial, and municipal governments and public school boards), and sometimes to the common law, not to private activity. Under the Charter , people physically present in Canada have numerous civil and political rights. Most of
2755-510: A role in writing the bill that was ultimately adopted. Meanwhile, Trudeau, who had become Liberal leader and prime minister in 1968, still very much wanted a constitutional bill of rights. The federal and provincial governments discussed creating one during negotiations for patriation, resulting in the Victoria Charter in 1971, which was never implemented. Trudeau continued his efforts, however, promising constitutional change during
2900-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and
3045-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only
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#17327721828013190-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as
3335-592: A successful outcome for claimants. The relative ineffectiveness of the Canadian Bill of Rights motivated many to improve rights protections in Canada. The British Parliament formally enacted the Charter as a part of the Canada Act 1982 at the request of the Parliament of Canada in 1982, the result of the efforts of the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau . The Charter greatly expanded
3480-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in
3625-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French
3770-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English
3915-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given
4060-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including
4205-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share
4350-440: Is based), which would polarize the country along regional lines. The Charter was also supposed to standardize previously diverse laws throughout the country and gear them towards a single principle of liberty. Former premier of Ontario Bob Rae has stated that the Charter "functions as a symbol for all Canadians" in practice because it represents the core value of freedom. Academic Peter Russell has been more skeptical of
4495-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in
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4640-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English
4785-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from
4930-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in
5075-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for
5220-684: Is professor Michael Mandel (1989), who wrote that, in comparison to politicians, judges do not have to be as sensitive to the will of the electorate, nor do they have to make sure their decisions are easily understandable to the average Canadian citizen. This, in Mandel's view, limits democracy. Mandel has also asserted that the Charter makes Canada more like the United States, especially by serving corporate rights and individual rights rather than group rights and social rights. He has argued that there are several things that should be included in
5365-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,
5510-473: Is that both constitutions provide comparable protection of many rights. Canada's fundamental justice (section 7) is therefore interpreted to include more legal protections than due process , which is the U.S. equivalent. Freedom of expression (section 2) also has a wider-ranging scope than the freedom of speech guaranteed under the U.S. First Amendment (1A). For instance, a form of picketing , though involving speech that might have otherwise been protected,
5655-475: Is the basis for the approach (and the tradition term for generous interpretations of the Canadian Constitution), they argue Charter case law has been more radical. When the living tree doctrine is applied correctly, Morton and Knopff (2000) claim, "the elm remained an elm; it grew new branches but did not transform itself into an oak or a willow." The doctrine can be used, for example, so a right
5800-446: Is the existence of the limitations and notwithstanding clauses. Canadian courts have consequently interpreted each right more expansively. However, due to the limitations clause, where a violation of a right exists, the law will not necessarily grant protection of that right. In contrast, rights under the U.S. Bill are absolute, thus a violation will not be found until there has been sufficient encroachment on those rights. The sum effect
5945-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure
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6090-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in
6235-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially
6380-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism
6525-626: Is to consider international legal precedents with countries that have specific rights protections, such as the U.S. Bill of Rights (which had influenced aspects of the Charter ) and the Constitution of South Africa . However, international precedent is only of guiding value and is not binding. For example, the Supreme Court has referred to the Charter and the U.S. Bill of Rights as being "born to different countries in different ages and in different circumstances". Advocacy groups frequently intervene in cases to make arguments on how to interpret
6670-508: Is upheld even when a government threatens to violate it with new technology, as long as the essential right remains the same, but the authors claim that the courts have used the doctrine to "create new rights". As an example, the authors note that the Charter right against self-incrimination has been extended to cover scenarios in the justice system that had previously been unregulated by self-incrimination rights in other Canadian laws. Another general approach to interpreting Charter rights
6815-557: The Canadian Bill of Rights , which the Canadian Parliament enacted in 1960. However, the Bill of Rights had a number of shortcomings. Unlike the Charter , it was an ordinary Act of Parliament , applicable only to the federal government, and could be amended by a simple majority of Parliament. Moreover, the courts chose to interpret the Bill of Rights only sparingly, and only on rare occasions applied it to find
6960-771: The Provincial Judges Reference by asking its provincial Supreme Court a question on judicial independence under section 11. In several important cases, judges developed various tests and precedents for interpreting specific provisions of the Charter , including the Oakes test (section 1), set out in the case R v Oakes (1986); and the Law test (section 15), developed in Law v Canada (1999) which has since become defunct. Since Reference Re BC Motor Vehicle Act (1985), various approaches to defining and expanding
7105-611: The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights . There are some who feel economic rights ought to be read into the rights to security of the person (section 7) and equality rights (section 15) to make the Charter similar to the Covenant . The rationale is that economic rights can relate to a decent standard of living and can help
7250-600: The 1980 Quebec referendum . He succeeded in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act 1982 in the British Parliament, which enacted the Constitution Act, 1982 as part of the Constitution of Canada. The inclusion of a charter of rights in the patriation process was a much-debated issue. Trudeau spoke on television in October 1980, where he announced his intention of a just society and constitutionalize
7395-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of
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#17327721828017540-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as
7685-608: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , and supporting a new relationship with Canada's Indigenous peoples. With the dissolution of the Senate Liberal Caucus, the Senate was without any Liberal senators for the first time in its history. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] ) is a Romance language of
7830-542: The Canadian Senators Group , which impose either prohibitions or limits, respectively, on outside partisan activities, there was no mention that the new Progressive Senate Group would have similar limits; however, Day confirmed that, like the aforementioned two groups, the PSG would not have whipped votes, and the requirements of membership included supporting or holding "progressive" political values, support of
7975-475: The Charter ' s value in this field. Cairns, who feels the Charter is the most important constitutional document to many Canadians, and that the Charter was meant to shape the Canadian identity, has also expressed concern that groups within society see certain provisions as belonging to them alone rather than to all Canadians. It has also been noted that issues like abortion and pornography , raised by
8120-471: The Charter , including the failed Charlottetown Accord of 1992. The Charlottetown Accord would have specifically required the Charter to be interpreted in a manner respectful of Quebec's distinct society , and would have added further statements to the Constitution Act, 1867 regarding racial and sexual equality and collective rights, and about minority language communities. Though the Accord
8265-478: The Charter include: Generally, the right to participate in political activities and the right to a democratic form of government are protected: Rights of people in dealing with the justice system and law enforcement are protected: Generally, people have the right to use either the English or French language in communications with Canada's federal government and certain provincial governments. Specifically,
8410-439: The Charter was adopted in 1982. Rather, focus has been given towards changing the scope of rights as appropriate to fit their broader purpose. This is tied to the "generous interpretation" of rights, as the purpose of the Charter provisions is assumed to be to increase rights and freedoms of people in a variety of circumstances, at the expense of the government powers. Constitutional scholar Peter Hogg (2003) has approved of
8555-406: The Charter , courts also gained new powers to enforce creative remedies and exclude more evidence in trials. Courts have since made many important decisions, including R v Morgentaler (1988), which struck down Canada's abortion law , and Vriend v Alberta (1998), in which the Supreme Court found the province's exclusion of sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds of discrimination violated
8700-545: The Charter , notably by alleging that the federal government has used it to limit provincial powers by allying with various rights claimants and interest groups. In their book The Charter Revolution & the Court Party (2000), Morton and Knopff express their suspicions of this alliance in detail, accusing the Pierre Trudeau and Chrétien governments of funding litigious groups. For example, these governments used
8845-477: The Charter , such as a right to health care and a basic right to free education. Hence, the perceived Americanization of Canadian politics is seen as coming at the expense of values more important for Canadians. The labour movement has been disappointed in the reluctance of the courts to use the Charter to support various forms of union activity, such as the "right to strike". Conservative critics Morton and Knopff (2000) have raised several concerns about
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#17327721828018990-499: The Charter , tend to be controversial. Still, opinion polls in 2002 showed Canadians felt the Charter significantly represented Canada, although many were unaware of the document's actual contents. The only values mentioned by the Charter ' s preamble are recognition of the supremacy of God and the rule of law , but these have been controversial and of minor legal consequence. In 1999, MP Svend Robinson brought forward
9135-445: The Charter . Likewise, Jamaica 's Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms was also influenced, in part, by Canada's Charter . The Charter was intended to be a source of Canadian values and national unity. As Professor Alan Cairns noted, "the initial federal government premise was on developing a pan-Canadian identity". Pierre Trudeau himself later wrote in his Memoirs (1993) that "Canada itself" could now be defined as
9280-556: The Charter . Some examples are the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association , Canadian Civil Liberties Association , Canadian Mental Health Association , Canadian Labour Congress , the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and REAL Women of Canada . The purpose of such interventions is to assist the court and to attempt to influence the court to render a decision favourable to
9425-466: The Constitution Act, 1982 . The Charter was preceded by the Canadian Bill of Rights , enacted in 1960, which was a federal statute rather than a constitutional document. The Bill of Rights exemplified an international trend towards formalizing human rights protections following the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights , instigated by the country's movement for human rights and freedoms that emerged after World War II. As
9570-404: The Constitution of Canada , forming the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982 . The Charter guarantees certain political rights to Canadian citizens and guarantees the civil rights of everyone in Canada. It is designed to unify Canadians around a set of principles that embody those rights. The Charter was proclaimed in force by Queen Elizabeth II of Canada on April 17, 1982, as part of
9715-570: The Court Challenges Program to support minority language educational rights claims. Morton and Knopff also assert that crown counsel has intentionally lost cases in which the government was taken to court for allegedly violating rights, particularly gay rights and women's rights . Political scientist Rand Dyck (2000), in observing these criticisms, notes that while judges have had their scope of review widened, they have still upheld most laws challenged on Charter grounds. With regard to litigious interest groups, Dyck points out that "the record
9860-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of
10005-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains
10150-441: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,
10295-405: The Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French
10440-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It
10585-601: The New Democratic Party , also prevented Trudeau from including any rights protecting private property. Quebec did not support the Charter (or the Canada Act 1982 ), with conflicting interpretations as to why. The opposition could have owed to the Parti Québécois (PQ) leadership being allegedly uncooperative because it was more committed to gaining sovereignty for Quebec. This could have owed to
10730-597: The Oakes test to uphold laws against hate speech (e.g., in R v Keegstra ) and obscenity (e.g., in R v Butler ). Section 1 also confirms that the rights listed in the Charter are guaranteed. In addition, some Charter rights are subject to the notwithstanding clause ( section 33 ). The notwithstanding clause authorizes governments to temporarily override the rights and freedoms in sections 2 and 7 through 15 for up to five years, subject to renewal. The Canadian federal government has never invoked it, and some have speculated that its use would be politically costly. In
10875-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It
11020-579: The Senate on February 1, 2020, and August 24, 2020, respectively, which meant that the parliamentary group would have been further reduced to six senators. On November 14, 2019, Day announced that the Senate Liberal Caucus was disbanding, with its current complement of nine members forming a new non-partisan parliamentary group called the Progressive Senate Group (PSG). Unlike the Independent Senators Group and
11165-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin
11310-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;
11455-773: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed
11600-611: The 32 senators chose to keep the designation "Liberal" and continue to sit together as a caucus, formally called the "Senate Liberal Caucus". Jim Cowan , the former leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate, remained the leader of his Liberal colleagues, and continued to be recognized as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate . According to Cowan, the only change would be that they "will not need to be concerned any more about
11745-518: The British Parliament cited their right to uphold Canada's old form of government. At a suggestion of the Conservatives, Trudeau's government thus agreed to a committee of senators and members of Parliament (MPs) to further examine the bill as well as the patriation plan. During this time, 90 hours were spent on the bill of rights alone, all filmed for television, while civil rights experts and advocacy groups put forward their perceptions on
11890-580: The Canadian Charter , but in some cases the Covenant goes further with regard to rights in its text. For example, a right to legal aid has been read into section 10 of the Charter (right to counsel), but the Covenant explicitly guarantees the accused need not pay "if he does not have sufficient means". Canada's Charter has little to say, explicitly at least, about economic and social rights. On this point, it stands in marked contrast with
12035-647: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French
12180-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,
12325-423: The Constitution to free Canada from the authority of British Parliament (also known as patriation ), ensuring the full sovereignty of Canada . Subsequently, Attorney General Pierre Trudeau appointed law professor Barry Strayer to research a potential bill of rights. While writing his report, Strayer consulted with a number of notable legal scholars, including Walter Tarnopolsky . Strayer's report advocated
12470-538: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of
12615-622: The European Convention, specifically in relation to the limitations clauses contained in the European document. Because of this similarity with European human rights law, the Supreme Court turns not only to the United States Constitution case law in interpreting the Charter , but also to European Court of Human Rights cases. The core distinction between the U.S. Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter
12760-484: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained
12905-572: The Liberal Party. The caucus was dissolved on November 14, 2019 and its members formed a new non-partisan parliamentary group, the Progressive Senate Group . The dissolution of the Senate Liberals marked the first time the Senate of Canada had no Liberal members since Canadian Confederation in 1867. Historically, Liberal senators were part of the national Liberal Party parliamentary caucus, alongside MPs ; this changed on January 29, 2014, when party leader Justin Trudeau expelled all 32 senators from
13050-628: The Senate Liberals did not become the government caucus in the Senate. Instead, Trudeau appointed a non-affiliated senator to be the Representative of the Government in the Senate . After 2015, several senators left the caucus and redesignated themselves as non-affiliated senators or joined the Independent Senators Group . By 2019, redesignations and retirements had reduced the Senate Liberal Caucus to nine members. As
13195-497: The U.S. For example, the Supreme Court has upheld some of Quebec's limits on the use of English on signs and has upheld publication bans that prohibit media from mentioning the names of juvenile criminals. The un-ratified Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S., which garnered many critics when proposed, performs a similar function to that of the Charter section 28, which received no comparable opposition. Still, Canadian feminists had to stage large protests to demonstrate support for
13340-501: The caucus. The expulsion came as part of Trudeau's proposal for a non-partisan Senate, arguing that "the party structure within the Senate interferes with [their] responsibilities," and said the remaining Liberal senators would have no formal ties to the Liberal Party machinery. The move came as a surprise to the Liberal senators, who were not informed the decision ahead of time. Although Trudeau said that they would now sit as independents,
13485-508: The civil rights flourish in a livable environment. Canadian courts, however, have been hesitant in this area, stating that economic rights are political questions and adding that as positive rights , economic rights are of questionable legitimacy. The Charter itself influenced the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of South Africa. The limitations clause under section 36 of the South African law has been compared to section 1 of
13630-598: The constitution. However, Quebec's opposition to the 1982 patriation package led to two failed attempts to amend the constitution (the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord ) which were designed primarily to obtain Quebec's political approval of the Canadian constitutional order. While the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was adopted in 1982, it was not until 1985 that the main provisions regarding equality rights (section 15) came into effect. The delay
13775-494: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [REDACTED] Canada portal The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (French: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés ), often simply referred to as the Charter in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in
13920-519: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French
14065-409: The draft charter ' s flaws and omissions and how to remedy them. As Canada had a parliamentary system of government, and as judges were perceived not to have enforced rights well in the past, it was questioned whether the courts should be named as the enforcers of the Charter , as Trudeau wanted. Conservatives argued that elected politicians should be trusted instead. It was eventually decided that
14210-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French
14355-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as
14500-480: The equality rights under section 15. In the latter case, the Court then read the protection into the law. Courts may receive Charter questions in a number of ways. Rights claimants could be prosecuted under a criminal law that they argue is unconstitutional. Others may feel government services and policies are not being dispensed in accordance with the Charter , and apply to lower-level courts for injunctions against
14645-414: The evidence was acquired in a way that conflicts with the Charter and might damage the reputation of the justice system. Section 32 confirms that the Charter is binding on the federal government, the territories under its authority, and the provincial governments. Section 1 of the Charter , known as the limitations clause , allows governments to justify certain infringements of Charter rights. If
14790-502: The exclusion of Quebec leaders from the negotiation of the Kitchen Accord, which they saw as being too centralist. It could have also owed to objections by provincial leaders to the accord's provisions relating to the process of future constitutional amendment. The PQ leaders also opposed the inclusion of mobility rights and minority language education rights. The Charter is applicable in Quebec because all provinces are bound by
14935-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of
15080-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,
15225-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being
15370-405: The generous approach in some cases, although for others he argues the purpose of the provisions was not to achieve a set of rights as broad as courts have imagined. The approach has not been without its critics. Alberta politician Ted Morton and political scientist Rainer Knopff have been very critical of this phenomenon. Although they believe in the validity of the living tree doctrine , which
15515-413: The government. A government may also raise questions of rights by submitting reference questions to higher-level courts; for example, Prime Minister Paul Martin 's government approached the Supreme Court with Charter questions as well as federalism concerns in the case Re Same-Sex Marriage (2004). Provinces may also do this with their superior courts. The government of Prince Edward Island initiated
15660-479: The inclusion of section 28, which had not been part of the original draft of the Charter. Another difference from the U.S. Bill of Rights is that the Charter does not provide any right to possess firearms. In 2000, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously rejected a constitutional challenge to the federal Firearms Act , ruling that it was within the federal criminal law power . The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has several parallels with
15805-401: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French
15950-513: The language laws in the Charter include: The remaining provisions help to clarify how the Charter works in practice. Many of the rights and freedoms that are protected under the Charter , including the rights to freedom of speech , habeas corpus , and the presumption of innocence , have their roots in a set of Canadian laws and legal precedents sometimes known as the Implied Bill of Rights . Many of these rights were also included in
16095-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon
16240-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,
16385-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what
16530-411: The legal interests of the group. A further approach to the Charter , taken by the courts, is the dialogue principle , which involves greater participation by elected governments. This approach involves governments drafting legislation in response to court rulings and courts acknowledging the effort if the new legislation is challenged. Some Canadian members of Parliament saw the movement to entrench
16675-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by
16820-482: The notwithstanding clause in order to push through Bill 307, the Protecting Elections and Defending Democracy Act , doubling the amount of time election advertisements could run to 1 year from 6 months. In 2006, the territory of Yukon also passed legislation that invoked the notwithstanding clause, but the legislation was never proclaimed in force. The rights and freedoms enshrined in 34 sections of
16965-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;
17110-420: The only part of the Charter with which Pierre Trudeau was truly concerned". Through the mobility and language rights, French Canadians , who have been at the centre of unity debates, are able to travel throughout all Canada and receive government and educational services in their own language. Hence, they are not confined to Quebec (the only province where they form the majority and where most of their population
17255-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of
17400-441: The past, the notwithstanding clause was invoked routinely by the province of Quebec (which did not support the enactment of the Charter but is subject to it nonetheless). The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta have also invoked the notwithstanding clause, to end a strike and to protect an exclusively heterosexual definition of marriage, respectively. In 2021, the government of Ontario under Premier Doug Ford invoked
17545-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French
17690-578: The provinces still had doubts about the Charter ' s merits, Trudeau was forced to accept the notwithstanding clause to allow governments to opt out of certain obligations. The notwithstanding clause was accepted as part of a deal called the Kitchen Accord , negotiated by the federal attorney general Jean Chrétien , Ontario's justice minister Roy McMurtry , and Saskatchewan's justice minister Roy Romanow . Pressure from provincial governments (which in Canada have jurisdiction over property) and from
17835-408: The real or perceived direction from the national Liberal caucus." Unlike previous practice in which the Liberal leaders in the Senate were appointed by the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, the leader of the Senate Liberal Caucus was directly elected by Liberal senators. When the Liberal Party under Trudeau formed the government following the 2015 federal election , contrary to previous practice,
17980-487: The responsibility should go to the courts. At the urging of civil libertarians , judges could now exclude evidence in trials if acquired in breach of Charter rights in certain circumstances, something the Charter was not originally going to provide for. As the process continued, more features were added to the Charter , including equality rights for people with disabilities, more sex equality guarantees, and recognition of Canada's multiculturalism . The limitations clause
18125-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in
18270-473: The rights can be exercised by any legal person (the Charter does not define the corporation as a "legal person"), but a few of the rights belong exclusively to natural persons, or (as in sections 3 and 6) only to citizens of Canada . The rights are enforceable by the courts through section 24 of the Charter , which allows courts discretion to award remedies to those whose rights have been denied. This section also allows courts to exclude evidence in trials if
18415-413: The scope of fundamental justice (i.e., natural justice or due process ) under section 7 have been adopted. In general, courts have embraced a purposive interpretation of Charter rights. This means that since early cases, such as Hunter v Southam Inc (1984) and R v Big M Drug Mart Ltd (1985), they have concentrated less on the traditional, limited understanding of what each right meant when
18560-419: The scope of judicial review , because the Charter is more explicit with respect to the guarantee of rights and the role of judges in enforcing them than was the Canadian Bill of Rights . Canadian courts , when confronted with violations of Charter rights, have struck down unconstitutional federal and provincial statutes and regulations or parts of statutes and regulations, as they did when Canadian case law
18705-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In
18850-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French
18995-568: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by
19140-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of
19285-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of
19430-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as
19575-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French
19720-504: Was also reworded to focus less on the importance of parliamentary government and more on the justifiability of limits in free societies; the latter logic was more in line with rights developments around the world after World War II. In its decision in the Patriation Reference (1981), the Supreme Court ruled there was a constitutional convention that some provincial approval should be sought for constitutional reform. As
19865-599: Was deemed as disruptive conduct and not protected by the U.S. 1A, but was considered by the Supreme Court in RWDSU v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd. (1986). The Supreme Court would rule the picketing, including the disruptive conduct, as fully protected under section 2 of the Charter , after which section 1 would be used to argue the injunction against the picketing as just. The limitations clause has also allowed governments to enact laws that would be considered unconstitutional in
20010-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but
20155-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul
20300-592: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates
20445-419: Was meant to give the federal and provincial governments an opportunity to review pre-existing statutes and strike potentially unconstitutional inequalities. The Charter has been amended since its enactment. Section 25 was amended in 1983 to explicitly recognize more rights regarding Aboriginal land claims , while section 16.1 was added in 1993. There have also been a number of unsuccessful attempts to amend
20590-426: Was negotiated among many interest groups, the resulting provisions were so vague that Trudeau, then out of office, feared they would actually conflict with and undermine the Charter ' s individual rights. He felt judicial review of the rights might be undermined if courts had to favour the policies of provincial governments, as governments would be given responsibility over linguistic minorities. Trudeau thus played
20735-414: Was primarily concerned with resolving issues of federalism . The Charter , however, granted new powers to the courts to enforce remedies that are more creative and to exclude more evidence in trials. These powers are greater than what was typical under the common law and under a system of government that, influenced by Canada's parent country the United Kingdom, was based upon Parliamentary supremacy . As
20880-411: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of
21025-437: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,
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