Undeterred, Brent Tyler is taking his fight to the UN

Clients prosecuted for violating language charter

The Supreme Court has refused to hear his appeal, but lawyer Brent Tyler vowed to continue his legal challenge against Quebec’s sign law.

“It’s Round 7, and it’s a 15-round fight,” Tyler told reporters at his law offices Thursday.

Tyler was representing 24 businesses that were prosecuted for violating the French language charter in between 1998 and 2001. In each of the cases, the lettering of English-language words was equal to the size of the French words. Tyler argues that it’s a violation of freedom of expression to tell people that the French language must be predominant on signs that they use on their businesses.

A court ruled against Tyler in 2014 and that ruling was upheld by two higher courts. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada

I find it, quite frankly, hugely disappointing. I like it when a court at least entertains our arguments. They did not.

ruled that it would not hear an ultimate appeal of the case. As is usual practice, the court didn’t justify its decision.

“I find it, quite frankly, hugely disappointing,” Tyler said. “I like it when a court at least entertains our arguments. They did not.”

Tyler accused the Supreme Court of playing it safe, in fear of wading into the language debate in Quebec.

“In every language case that I plead, there is a 5,000-pound gorilla in the corner that is the threat of Quebec secession,” he said. “Courts are fearful of contributing to support of sovereignty if they strike down portions of Bill 101.”

He recognized that the language debate is an emotional one, and in cases where he has been successful in quashing parts of the French-language charter, he was met with protesters in front of his office, who had “Canadian flags with swastikas on them.”

With the Supreme Court’s refusal, Tyler said he has exhausted all legal recourses in Canada to challenge a law he says is discriminatory. He intends to now bring the case before the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Tyler said this was done once before, in the 1990s, and the body ruled against the province in that case. It resulted in the province making a significant change to its law governing the language of signs.

One of Tyler’s clients, Dania Besnos, the owner of Mundi Canada Inc., said she was disappointed by the court’s decision not to hear the case. She was fined $500 at the time for lettering at the company ’s head office and will now have to pay that amount, plus court costs of roughly $55.

“I’m really disappointed that as a Canadian citizen in Quebec, I have fewer rights than people in the rest of the country,” Besnos said. “I have no issue with the language laws, but I have an issue with the mentality that I am being told that I am lesser than. It’s a discriminatory law.”

She said she intends to pay the fine, but will do so with a heavy heart.

“Someone will have to put Valium in me when I sign that cheque,” Besnos said.

She added that she is ready to go further and challenge the law at the UN.