Category Archives: Access to Justice

Supreme Court grants leave to appeal in Caron

Case considered: R. v. Caron, 2009 ABCA 34, leave granted by SCC August 27, 2009

The Supreme Court of Canada has released its decision on the Alberta government’s leave to appeal application in R. v. Caron.  Chief Justice McLachlin and Justices Abella and Rothstein granted the government’s leave application (without costs). As is typical in such matters, no reasons for decision were given.  The case concerns an interim costs award that was granted to Caron to help fund his language rights challenge against Alberta legislation. As noted in a previous post, Caron was granted an interim costs award by Justice V.O. Ouellette of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in October 2007.  This award was upheld by the Alberta Court of Appeal in January 2009.  In the meantime, Caron’s language rights challenge was successful after his Provincial Court trial, and this matter is now under appeal. Regardless of the outcome of the language rights challenge, the interim costs matter is a critical issue for access to justice.  The Alberta Court of Appeal held that interim costs awards are available in quasi-criminal matters before provincial courts, and it is expected that this will be one of the government’s grounds for appeal.  ABlawg will report on future developments in the case.

Interim Costs Order Upheld in Language Rights Case

Cases considered: R. v. Caron, 2009 ABCA 34.

PDF Version:  Interim Costs Order Upheld in Language Rights Case

Gilles Caron was awarded interim costs in relation to expert and legal fees for a language rights claim that was eventually allowed by the Alberta Provincial Court (see my previous posts La Belle Province? Developments in Alberta Language Rights Cases, Special Enough? Interim Costs and Access to Justice). Caron’s language rights claim is now before the Alberta Court of Appeal, but in the meantime the Court upheld the interim costs order to Caron and clarified the jurisdiction of superior courts to grant such orders in quasi-criminal proceedings in provincial court.

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Funding Restored for Court Challenges Language Rights Programs

In 2 previous posts (see here and here) I discussed the application of Gilles Caron for an interim costs order to fund his language rights claim against the Alberta government. This application was required in large part because of the cancellation of the Court Challenges Program (CCP) by the Harper government in 2006. In a recent development described in an excellent post by Shelagh Day on rabble.ca the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) has settled its claim against the federal government for the cancellation of the CCP. Part of the settlement agreement includes the reinstatement of funding for minority language rights litigation. However, in spite of the fact that the FCFA’s claim was to restore funding for both the language rights and equality rights components of the CCP, the government only restored funding to the former. The FCFA’s victory is welcome, and may permit claims like that of Caron to proceed in the future without interim costs applications. However, there is a huge gap left by the continued inability of equality rights claimants to seek funding for their litigation. Will it take a costly lawsuit on the equality rights side to see funding restored?

Special Enough? Interim Costs and Access to Justice

Cases Considered: R. v. Caron, 2007 ABQB 632

PDF Version:  Special Enough? Interim Costs and Access to Justice

On December 4, 2003, Gilles Caron was charged under Alberta’s Use of Highway and Rules of the Road Regulation, Alta Reg. 304/2002, with making an unsafe left turn, a charge with a maximum fine of $100. Almost 4 years later his case is still before the courts, and has taken on a significance that belies the seemingly innocuous nature of his initial traffic ticket.

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