Section Twenty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Constitution of Canada that guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Quebec, and, to a lesser extent, English-speaking minorities in Quebec. The section may be particularly notable, in that some scholars believe that section 23 "was the only part of the Charter with which Pierre Trudeau was truly concerned." Trudeau was the prime minister who fought for the inclusion of the Charter of Rights in the Constitution of Canada in 1982.

Section 23(1)(b), or section 23 as a whole, are also known as the "Canada clause."

Under the heading "Minority Language Educational Rights," the section reads,

have the right to have their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in that language in that province.

(2) Citizens of Canada of whom any child has received or is receiving primary or secondary school instruction in English or French in Canada, have the right to have all their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in the same language.

(3) The right of citizens of Canada under subsections (1) and (2) to have their children receive primary and secondary school instruction in the language of the English or French linguistic minority population of a province

Section 23 must be read in conjunction with Section 59 of the Constitution Act, 1982:

(2) A proclamation under subsection (1) shall be issued only where authorized by the legislative assembly or government of Quebec.

(3) This section may be repealed on the day paragraph 23(1)(a) comes into force in respect of Quebec and this Act amended and renumbered, consequentially upon the repeal of this section, by proclamation issued by the Queen or the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada.

As a strong federalist, Trudeau had fought to ensure linguistic rights in the constitution to promote national unity. Section 23 (1)(b) had its origins in a unanimous agreement between the provincial leaders and Trudeau reached in 1978 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, in which children of citizens could receive schooling in their language. When this idea was brought to the Charter in the 1980s, Trudeau also successfully secured agreement from provincial leaders that section 23 could not be nullified by the section 33 notwithstanding clause.

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