Ford v. Quebec (Attorney General)

Ford v Quebec (AG)
Supreme Court of Canada
Hearing: November 16–18, 1987 Judgment: December 15, 1988
Full case name	The Attorney General of Quebec v. La Chaussure Brown's Inc., Valerie Ford, McKenna Inc., Nettoyeur et Tailleur Masson Inc. and La Compagnie de Fromage Nationale Ltée
Citations	[1988] 2 S.C.R. 712
Docket No.	20306
Prior history	Judgement against the Attorney General of Quebec by the Court of Appeal for Quebec
Ruling	Appeal dismissed.
Court Membership
Chief Justice: Brian Dickson Puisne Justices: Jean Beetz, Willard Estey, William McIntyre, Antonio Lamer, Bertha Wilson, Gerald Le Dain, Gérard La Forest, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé
Reasons given
Unanimous reasons by	The Court
Estey, Le Dain, La Forest, and L'Heureux-Dubé JJ. took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws Applied
Forget v. Quebec (Attorney General), [1988] 2 S.C.R. 90

Ford v Quebec (AG), [1988] 2 S.C.R. 712 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in which the Court struck down part of the Charter of the French Language, commonly known as Bill 101. This law had restricted the use of commercial signs written in languages other than French. The court ruled that Bill 101 violated the freedom of expression as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The appeal, launched by the government of Quebec, consolidated many cases initiated by Montreal-area merchants such as Montreal florist Hyman Singer and West Island wool shop owner Valerie Ford. Following complaints, the Office québécois de la langue française had instructed them to inform and serve their customers in French and replace their bilingual French and English signs with unilingual French ones. They had been fined for violation of the Charter of the French Language and decided to fight the case in court with the backing of Alliance Quebec. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decisions of the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal.

In late 1989, shortly after the Supreme Court's decision, premier Robert Bourassa's Liberal Party of Quebec government passed Bill 178, making minor amendments to the Charter of the French Language. Recognizing that the amendments did not follow the Supreme Court's ruling, the provincial legislature invoked section 33 of the Canadian Charter (also known as the notwithstanding clause) to shield Bill 178 from review by courts for five years.