The Quebec Superior Court has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the appointment of Governor General Mary Simon can move forward and be heard on its merits, marking a second legal setback for the federal government in the case.
In a decision released this week, Justice Marie-Hélène Dubé dismissed an application by the attorney general of Canada to have the lawsuit thrown out. The ruling allows the plaintiffs two Quebec-based language rights organizations to continue their constitutional challenge against Simon’s appointment.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022 by Droits collectifs Québec and Justice pour le Québec, argues that Simon cannot lawfully hold the office of Governor General because she does not speak French. Simon was appointed in 2021 as the King’s representative in Canada.
The plaintiffs are seeking to have her appointment invalidated, claiming it violates sections 16 and 20 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Those sections guarantee the equal status of French and English as Canada’s official languages and the right of Canadians to receive services from federal institutions in either language.
Mary Simon, who is Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General, is fluent in English and Inuktitut. She was educated at a federal day school in Quebec’s Nunavik region and has previously said she was not given the opportunity to learn French as a child. After her appointment, Simon committed to learning French and began taking lessons in July 2021, according to Rideau Hall.
The federal government argued that there is no constitutional or legal requirement for a Governor General to be bilingual, and that the lawsuit did not raise issues serious enough to warrant a full hearing. Justice Dubé rejected that argument, ruling that the matter should be examined in detail before a final judgment is made.
The attorney general also challenged the legal standing of the plaintiffs, including Droits collectifs Québec, its executive director Étienne-Alexis Boucher, Justice pour le Québec, and its former president, Frédéric Bastien, who died in May 2023. While allowing the case to proceed, Dubé ruled that the organizations will need to file amended submissions to further demonstrate their relevance and standing in the case.
“This is a victory for the defence of French in constitutional law and opens the door to moving the case forward,” Boucher said in a media statement.
This is the second time the federal government has attempted to have the case dismissed. In 2023, the government argued that the challenge should be heard in Federal Court rather than Quebec Superior Court, an argument that was rejected by Justice Catherine Piché.
The ruling comes amid similar legal debates elsewhere in Canada. Earlier this year, New Brunswick’s highest court ruled that the province’s lieutenant-governor is not constitutionally required to be bilingual.
The Quebec case is expected to continue later this year, when the court will hear arguments on the substance of the constitutional challenge.
