How do you say Fuck Off in French?

Way back in 2003, Gilles Caron made an illegal left turn somewhere in the wilds of Alberta, and was issued a traffic ticket of less than $100.


He challenged the ticket because it was not written in French and won………., with the provincial court ruling arguing his constitutional rights had been breached.

The Alberta government appealed and the ticket challenge is still before the courts.

(First of all folks, what was he doing in Alberta in the first place if he couldn’t speak English! I can’t speak French and there is no way you will ever find me in Quebec! Anyway, here’s the rest of the poop in this ridiculous story!)

Canada’s top court has dismissed an appeal by the Alberta government, an attempt by the province to claw back legal costs incurred by a francophone Alberta man over a unilingual traffic ticket challenge.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gilles Caron could keep the $120,000 interim cost order awarded to him to help to fund his constitutional court fight over an English-only traffic ticket.

The case – separate from Caron’s language fight – concerned whether a higher court had the jurisdiction to order an interim cost order in a lower court matter.

The ruling upheld a decision by an Alberta appeals court that superior courts do indeed have that jurisdiction over lower courts, as long as three criteria are met, namely:

-that those seeking interim costs genuinely cannot afford to pay for litigation;

-that the claim is of sufficient merit;

-that the issues raised transcend the individual interests of a particular litigant.

Justice Ian Binnie argued Caron’s financial resources had been exhausted in the long legal battle and he could not afford to continue paying for the last leg of the language trial.

The judge further argued the case could have an important impact on Alberta’s legislation and if Caron was unable to continue his legal battle, efforts that had been made to resolve language issues in the province would have been wasted.

The court also ruled Alberta would have to cover Caron’s legal costs incurred for the Supreme Court fight.

By JESSICA MURPHY, Parliamentary Bureau, CNET News

(Now your frustrated author has to admit that the issue over language rights and traffic tickets isn’t unique to Alberta. The RCMP has had to defend handing out French-only tickets in Quebec because of that province’s language laws as well. BUT! There’s one big difference………….. French is not illegal in Alberta, while English is against the law in Quebec!)