The Supreme Court has filed a lawsuit for refusing to translate decisions from before 1970

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A Quebec civil rights group is suing the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada over the Supreme Court’s refusal to translate its landmark decisions into French.

Droits collectifs Québec says it filed a petition in federal court on Friday after failing to get the registrar’s office – which acts as an administrative body for the court – to comply with the Official Languages ​​Act.

The lawsuit covers more than 6,000 decisions made between 1877 and 1969, the year the Official Languages ​​Act came into effect, requiring federal agencies to publish content in English and French.

The Supreme Court has been translating decisions since 1970, but has argued to the Commissioner for Official Languages ​​that the law does not apply retroactively.

But the commissioner ruled in September that while that is true, all decisions published on the court’s website must be available in both official languages.

The Quebec rights group says it has filed a request with the Federal Court to force the Supreme Court to uphold the language commissioner’s ruling.

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