Constitutionnalité de dispositions conférant un statut, des privilèges et des droits à une langue minoritaire : le cas singulier du Nunavut et de sa Loi sur la protection de la langue inuit
Year:
2013
Author :
Volume and number:
, 58 (3)
Journal:
, McGill Law Journal
Pages :
, 519-571
Abstract
The Inuit Language Protection Act (ILPA) is a recent Nunavut statute. The only one of its kind in Canada, it is even more ambitious than Quebec’s Charter of the French Language. A controversial statute, some question whether the legislator has exceeded its competence in adopting certain of its provisions. Indeed, section 3 of the ILPA aims to require federal departments, agencies, or institutions operating in Nunavut to provide public services and to display signs in the Inuit language, even when these organizations are acting within an area of federal legislative competence. Sections 29, 30, and 34 of the ILPA provide for the mandatory preparation of an Inuit Language Plan, detailing how an organization will comply with the legislation. The languages commissioner, who possesses broad powers of investigation in order to ensure compliance with the legislation, must approve this plan. At first glance, these sections seem to contradict the established rule that a government can legislate with respect to language provided that this legislation is ancillary to its own areas of competence. This rule derives from certain particularities of the Constitution Act, 1867. However, further analysis leads to the conclusion that this conceptual framework does not apply to Nunavut. The latter holds the power to require, on its territory, the use of the Inuit language by federal departments, agencies, and institutions.
Theme :
RightLinguistic minoritiesNunavut
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