Overview

​ Date of entry into Confederation: July 1, 1873
Capital: Charlottetown
Population: 133,385 (2001)
Official language: English (de facto)
Majority group: English (93.9%)
Minority groups: French (4.3%), other languages (1.5%)
Political system: Province within the Canadian federation since 1873
Constitutional language provisions: sections 14, 16–23, 55, and 57 of the 1982 Constitution
Language laws: French Language Services Act (Loi sur les services en français), 1999.

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia does not have a language policy per se, preferring to bow to court judgments and constitutional provisions in matters of education.

Limited Services

Given the vicissitudes of history, it is normal that English should remain the only language authorized in the provincial Legislature, whether for debates or the drafting and enactment of legislation. However, francophone members of the Legislative Assembly may, if they insist, express themselves in French, but they will not be understood by their English-speaking colleagues, given the absence of interpreting services.

In the courts, it is impossible to have a trial conducted in French in civil proceedings. However, Part XVII of Canada's Criminal Code has been in force in Nova Scotia since 1988, which means that criminal trials can be held in French. There are currently two bilingual judges in the province, as well as a few courtroom employees who speak both languages.

As concerns government services, no policy exists to ensure a minimum of French-language communication with the Acadian (francophone) community. In any case, since bilingual civil servants are few and far between, it would be practically impossible to offer French services to this segment of the population. Some hospitals employ a few bilingual physicians and medical staff, but their presence has nothing to do with the application of any kind of language policy. At the federal level, delivery of French-language services leaves much to be desired, especially given that certain federal agencies are still restructuring in the wake of the amalgamation or privatization of some of their services.

Education

For decades, Nova Scotia's Acadians were ignominiously deprived of all right to French schools. It was not until 1981 that Bill 65 amended the school legislation of 1967 and the Education Act was adopted, entitling francophones to be provided with French first-language programs in écoles acadiennes (Acadian schools), "if the numbers warrant the provision of the program" (s. 2bii). Section 7 of the Education Act also stipulates that the language of administration and communication of all French first-language program facilities shall be French.

This Act nonetheless proved ineffective. In the Sydney area alone, no French school was provided despite the presence of some 600 francophone students. In 1988, the Cape Breton School board, a majority of whose members were English-speaking, blocked the creation of a French school for Acadians, who retaliated by bringing their case before the courts. The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal issued its judgment the following year, declaring that the applicants had the right, in accordance with section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to have their children receive publicly funded instruction in French. Forced to determine a location for the French school, the school board chose a piece of property outside the municipality of Sydney. The Acadians protested and the Court found in their favour, but ruled that the number of students was not sufficient to warrant the opening of an "Acadian" school: in the end, only 50 children actually enrolled! The parents claimed that the process had been marred by numerous irregularities. Indeed, certain anglophones, some of whom were school board members, openly opposed French-language instruction in their province, going so far as to describe it as a spreading cancer.

In 1990, there was only one exclusively French school in Nova Scotia, Carrefour du Grand-Havre in Halifax-Dartmouth, with a student population of 400 from kindergarten to grade 12. Another fifteen or so "Acadian" schools were scattered throughout the province, representing a student enrollment of 2,500; these mixed establishments, which were governed by school boards with only a few francophone members, provided instruction in French from kindergarten to sixth grade, and in English from grades 7 to 12. A school board was set up by the Acadian community but never authorized by the government. It is easy to appreciate the Acadians' demands for school reforms that would allow for the establishment of a system more in keeping with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Faced with an outcry among francophones, the Legislative Assembly adopted, in June 1991, the School Boards Act, which enabled the creation of French-language school boards. The ongoing efforts to ensure the implementation of francophone school governance finally yielded results in 1996. In January of that year, the Legislative Assembly proclaimed the new Education Act, which allowed the government to go forward with the establishment of the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (a provincial French-language school authority). The Conseil is currently responsible for managing Nova Scotia's 17 French-language schools, which have a total enrollment of 4,158 students and employ 303 teachers. There are currently 20 English-language school boards in Nova Scotia, one bilingual board (Clare-Argyle), and one conseil d'école (Grand-Havre).

In 1994, Nova Scotia created the Direction des services acadiens et de langue française (the Acadian and French Language Services Branch of the Department of Education). This entity is mandated to "provide educational programs and services in French as a first language and French as a second language" that reflect the Acadian reality and cultural diversity and promote the knowledge of both of Canada's official languages. As for the Nova Scotia Office of Acadian Affairs, it focuses on increasing the visibility of the province's Acadian community and promoting its heritage and culture as an essential component of the province's rich diversity. Its mission is to…

  • Provide information to all levels of government as well as the population, in particular about Acadian heritage and culture as an integral part of the Nova Scotian community
  • Promote partnership and dialogue between the francophone and anglophone communities of Nova Scotia
  • Provide assistance and support for activities promoting French language and culture in the province
  • Ensure that the government authorities understand the needs of the Acadian francophone population of Nova Scotia
  • Ensure that the needs of Nova Scotia Acadians are addressed in the development of policies and programs

The fact remains that Nova Scotia has always been hesitant to enforce the constitutional provisions of section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 1998, Nova Scotia still had not met its obligation to provide secondary-level instruction in French to its francophone minority in its own schools. A group of Acadian parents subsequently instituted proceedings against the Nova Scotia government to oblige it to build separate French-language secondary schools in five school districts that had a francophone population. The province agreed in principle but delayed implementation, pleading insufficient funds and the absence of consensus within the community.

More specifically, this matter dates back to June 15, 2000, when Nova Scotia trial judge Arthur LeBlanc found in favour of the Fédération des parents acadiens de la Nouvelle-Écosse (a provincial parents' federation), which was seeking to force the province and the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial to open five French first-language schools, one each in the areas of Chéticamp, Annapolis (Kingston/Greenwood), Île Madame, Argyle, and Clare. Not only did the judge oblige the government to build the five schools, but he also ruled that it should produce progress reports on the work carried out for that purpose. The province considered that the Acadian judge had gone too far in his verdict and was straying from his jurisdiction, and contested the latter part of the ruling before the Court of Appeal, which, on June 26, 2001, found in its favour in a split decision.

In November 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that "the Province failed to meet its obligations to the appellant parents despite its clear awareness of their rights." The Court pointed out that constitutional requirements specify a minimum number of students and that, since francophones in Nova Scotia were being assimilated at a furious rate, action had to be taken quickly. However, the government of Nova Scotia vacillated, claiming that the law conferred no supervisory entitlement with respect to the enforcement of language rights. In sum, the province argued that governments should be trusted to show good faith in complying with the judgments handed down by the courts. But the Supreme Court did not agree, which is why the judges affirmed

If delay is tolerated, governments could potentially avoid the duties imposed upon them by s. 23 through their own failure to implement the rights vigilantly.

This ruling set a precedent because it meant that in future, judges would be able to ensure that their decisions were implemented in a timely fashion. Canada's highest tribunal had found that courts could discipline provinces that dragged their heels in building French schools, thereby overturning the decision of the Court of Appeal of Nova Scotia, which had ruled in favour of the provincial government against the Fédération des parents acadiens. The schools in question have since opened to the great satisfaction of Nova Scotia Acadians, who are particularly happy with the precedent established by the Supreme Court in that it protects them should they once again have to deal with a government that is reluctant to obey a court order.

In Nova Scotia, it would appear that the constitutional rights of francophones are only doled out sparingly. As for language rights, none are granted by the province of its own accord, and the government only seems to act— and even then with as much delay as possible—when forced to under the constitutional provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If it had not been for certain court rulings, Nova Scotia francophones would have been obliged to file new lawsuits, with all the attendant delays and expense.