Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick v. The Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada, et al.
Thu, Nov 13
|Ottawa
📢 A special day at the Supreme Court of Canada, alongside our Pilot, the Honourable Justice Mahmud Jamal, from the front row seats!
Time & Location
Nov 13, 2025, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Ottawa, 301 Wellington St, Ottawa, ON K1A 0J1, Canada
About the event
On August 2, 2019, the Honourable Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New Brunswick, tragically passed away prematurely while still in office. Immediately following l’Honourable Madame Roy-Vienneau’s passing, efforts were underway to appoint a new Lieutenant-Governor.
On September 4, 2019, on the advice of Prime Minister Trudeau, the office of the Privy Council recommended that the Governor General issue an Order in Council appointing Brenda Louise Murphy as the 32nd Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick pursuant to section 58 of the Constitution Act, 1867.
At the time of her appointment in September 2019 as well as at the time of the hearing of this application in December 2021, the Honourable Lieutenant-Governor Murphy was not bilingual. This fact was conceded by the Respondents at the hearing. While Lieutenant-Governor Murphy is actively engaged in improving her French language skills, as she committed to do at the time of her appointment, she is not bilingual.
On the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, the Privy Council Office recommended that the Governor General issue an Order in Council appointing a Lieutenant Governor in New Brunswick who was not bilingual. At trial, that appointment was found inconsistent with the bilingualism requirements in ss. 16(2), 16.1(2) and 20(2) of the Charter. The Court of Appeal set aside that decision on the basis that the appointment of a Lieutenant Governor who was not bilingual did not infringe ss. 16(2), 16.1(1), 18(2) and 20(2) of the Charter.