April 25, 1979 - Georges Forest - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Manitoba top court rules that English-only laws are unconstitutional.In 1976, Georges Forest was issued a parking ticket in Winnipeg, Manitoba and fined $5. Instead of paying this, he challenged the ticket with documentation in French, and thus began one of Canada’s most contentious debates on the rights of French language outside of Quebec. On April 25, 1979, the Manitoba Court of Appeal agreed with Forest that Manitoba’s English-only aspect of the 1890 Official Languages Act was unconstitutional, as it conflicted with Manitoba’s constitutional guarantees of allowing both French and English in the courts and legislature. The Manitoba Act also stated that all statutes must be printed in both French and English. While the court was unwilling to invalidate all of Manitoba’s laws, which would throw the province into chaos, it did ask the Manitoba government to fix the problem. Years later the NDP government began negotiations with the province’s Francophone community to make Manitoba Canada’s second officially bilingual province. Many Manitobans reacted with outrage and protests. The official Opposition, Progressive Conservatives, walked out of the legislature, grinding all legislative activity to a halt. The government eventually backed down, and in 1985, when Canada’s Supreme Court agreed with the Manitoba Court of Appeal decision, the province began the long process of translating all laws into French. Today all laws in Manitoba are published in both official languages and the province has greatly expanded its services in French.

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