Yellowknife (Oct 30/06) - Public access to Hansard, the official record of proceedings in the legislative assembly, was suspended Oct. 26.

House speaker Paul Delorey took the action to ensure the government was not in contempt of a court order, which came after the Federation Franco-Tenois (FFT) won its case against the GNWT for not providing essential services in French.

In April of this year, Justice J.M. Moreau ruled the territorial government was not fulfilling its obligations under its Official Languages Act. In the ruling, the GNWT had windows between six months and a year to hire French speaking doctors, nurses and civil servants and publish public documents in both English and French.

In Hansard's case, Moreau gave the government six months to start translating the English document into French, and that deadline expired last week.

"First of all, it was and continues to be our view that there's no requirement to translate Hansard based on the Official Languages Act," said Tim Mercer, clerk of the legislative assembly and Delorey's deputy.

At the end of July, the government appealed Justice Moreau's decision.

Mercer added that lawyers representing the legislative assembly, the GNWT and Federation Franco-Tenois were negotiating a stay of the court order that could, "Stand down this order until the appeal has been ruled on."

If negotiations are successful, Hansard could return for public consumption. Under the current suspension, Hansard is available to house staff and members of the public service.

While NWT Bureau of Statistics counts 950 Francophones residing in the territories. The Federation paints a different picture. According to its numbers, there are 3,700 Francophones in the NWT with 2,500 living in Yellowknife.

If the legislative assembly and the GWNT lose their appeal, the assembly would become the fourth such legislature to provide its Hansard in both official languages.

Official records from the House of Commons and Senate in Ottawa and the legislative assembly of New Brunswick are the only Hansards currently offered in French and English. Nunavut's legislative assembly provides two versions of its Hansard; Inuktitut and English.