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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A civil court battle over the expansion and admission rights of French-language schools in the territory will drag on a little longer because the territorial government is appealing a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of the NWT that would force the GNWT to fund expansions to the schools.

"We were obviously disappointed, we were hoping to move on," said Suzette Montreuil, president of the Commission scholaire francophone des territoires du nord-ouest (French school board of the NWT). "But the judge's ruling still stands until the court of appeal says anything different."

Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau released a decision on June 1 ordering the GNWT to fund the expansion of the French school board's two schools - Ecole Allain St. Cyr in Yellowknife and Ecole Boreale in Hay River. The ruling gave the territorial government until September 2015 to expand Ecole Allain St. Cyr to accommodate 250 students, up from its current capacity of 160 students, as well as build a gymnasium, a space for home economics, a multi-use room for music and arts, a fully-equipped science lab for high school students and a dedicated space for working with children with special needs.

The GNWT has filed its appeal because it disagrees with the ruling on two fronts - the necessity of the schools' expansion and the school board's right to regulate access to French-language schools in the territory.

On the first point, the government is of the opinion that the Yellowknife school is of adequate size for the existing enrolment and that there is no evidence to suggest that there are other eligible students who have been denied access to the school, said Max Faille, the GNWT's lawyer.

"Without clear evidence of overcrowding or of individuals who were being deterred from the school, there is no compelling reason to expand the school," said Faille.

No final price on the expansion of the two schools has been disclosed. However, it is expected to be in the millions of dollars, said Faille, and that money has to come from somewhere.

"We believe that the numbers in the school dictate the nature and the size of the facility. We certainly believe that these two schools, although not perfect, are more than adequate," he said.

The second point, on who should govern enrolment eligibility at the French-language schools, is more complex because it involves charter rights.

Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees that minority language speakers will have access to education in their first language anywhere in the country, as long as that language is either French or English. For example, an English-speaking family living in Quebec or another French jurisdiction in Canada has the right to have their children educated in English. In the same way, French-speaking families living in the Northwest Territories, where English is the primary language, have the right to access French-language education for their children.

The recent court ruling grants the French school board of the NWT the power to admit students outside of the framework of the constitution at its own discretion. Faille said that this is a problem, while Montreuil said that this is not a responsibility that the school board will take lightly.

The French school board has 18 different criteria which families must meet to gain access to the school, said Montreuil. Primarily, students who would gain access by special permission would be children of francophone heritage but whose parents do not speak French as their primary language, and children of immigrants whose first language is neither English nor French, but who would like to enrol their children in a French-language school.

"There are many (French-language) rights holders in English schools," said Montreuil. "So, they have the right to admit rights holders and we don't have the right? It seems very one-sided."

As of press time, no date had been determined for the appeal hearing.

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