Court rejects Ottawa’s attempt to quash lawsuit challenging Governor General’s appointment

The Quebec Superior Court has ruled that a lawsuit seeking to overturn Governor General Mary Simon’s appointment can move forward and be heard on its merits.

Justice Marie-Hélène Dubé dismissed an application by the attorney general of Canada to have the case thrown out, giving the plaintiffs — two Quebec language rights groups — their second win in the case.

The court challenge, filed in Quebec Superior Court in 2022, argues that Simon, who took over as the King’s representative in Canada in 2021, cannot hold the position because she does not speak French.

The plaintiffs say they would like to see Simon’s appointment invalidated.

Simon, who was educated at a federal day school in Quebec’s Nunavik region, has said she was not given the opportunity to learn French as a child. She has promised to try to learn it and started taking lessons last December.

Governor General Mary Simon hugs residential school survivor Navalik Tologanak as they take part in the site selection ceremony for the Residential Schools National Monument on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 20, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Simon is Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General and is fluent in English and Inuktitut.

The two groups that brought the court challenge — Droits collectifs Québec and Justice Pour le Québec — argue that the federal government violated two sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by appointing Simon to the prestigious position even though she is not fluent in French.

The lawsuit argues her appointment violates sections 16 and 20 of the charter, which guarantee the equal status of French and English and the right to be served by federal institutions in either official language.

This is the second time the federal government has sought to have the lawsuit thrown out.

In 2023, the government sought to have the case dismissed by arguing that it should be heard in a federal court, not the Quebec Superior Court. That argument was rejected by Justice Catherine Piché.

‘A victory for the defense of French’

More recently, the Office of the Attorney General of Canada argued that there is no legal requirement for a Governor General to speak both English and French, and that the lawsuit did not merit being heard by the court.

Dubé rejected that request, saying that the case should be heard in full before a judgment is made.

The attorney general also sought to challenge the legal standing of the plaintiffs — specifically the executive director of Droits Collectifs Québec, its executive director Étienne-Alexis Boucher, Justice pour le Québec and its former president, Frédéric Bastien, who died in May 2023.

Dubé did state in her ruling that the two groups will need to file amended submissions to prove their relevance to the case.

“This is a victory for the defense of French in constitutional law and opens the door to moving the case forward,” Boucher said in a mid-statement.

A similar case was heard in New Brunswick earlier this year. The province’s top court ruled that New Brunswick’s lieutenant-governor is not required by the Constitution to be bilingual.