Supreme Court rules New Brunswick lieutenant-governor must be bilingual

The Supreme Court of Canada says New Brunswick’s lieutenant governor must be bilingual.

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick must be able to perform their functions in both official languages.

In a 6-3 decision released Friday, the court said appointing a lieutenant-governor who can’t communicate in both official languages violates the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms stating that English and French have equal status in New Brunswick.

“This equality cannot be preserved when the position of lieutenant-governor of the province, a unipersonal and highly symbolic institution, is held by a unilingual person,” the decision read.

The Acadian Society of New Brunswick had challenged the appointment of Brenda Murphy as lieutenant-governor in 2019 by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau on the grounds that she did not speak French. The society argued Murphy’s nomination violated the right to communicate with and receive services from the government in either official language.

While the high court sided with the Acadian society, it did not invalidate Murphy’s appointment and noted that the decision did not reflect on her work.

Friday’s ruling rejects a 2024 Court of Appeal decision that said while it is desirable for the province’s lieutenant-governor to be bilingual, the Constitution doesn’t impose such a requirement.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Richard Wagner said that language policy generally focuses on ensuring institutions are bilingual, rather than on the personal language skills of the people working for them. However, he said the lieutenant-governor’s role is an exception.

Wagner said the office of the lieutenant-governor is “constitutionally inseparable from its sole office holder,” has a uniquely symbolic role in New Brunswick, and “its functions cannot be performed by anyone else.”

“The equality of status of the official languages must be reflected in the holder’s personal ability to speak and to represent the institution in each official language,” Wagner wrote.

Appointing a unilingual English speaker, he continued, “has the effect of relegating the official language in which that person is not proficient to a secondary status and of undermining, through the symbolic effect of the appointment itself, the rights of the province’s francophones.”

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt praised the Supreme Court’s decision, which she said reflects her government’s position.

“We’ve believed that the person, as well as the institution, should be bilingual, and that is something that we’ve pushed the federal government on to ensure that’s the case going forward,” she said.

Holt said she was happy to see Murphy’s appointment and her contributions remain in place, however.

“Brenda Murphy did an impressive amount of work to become bilingual during her time as lieutenant-governor, but the appointment should have been for a bilingual person,” Holt said.

Following Murphy, the bilingual Louise Imbeault, a former journalist and activist, was installed lieutenant-governor in January 2025.

Three Supreme Court judges disagreed with the majority. Justice Malcolm Rowe wrote that, in the dissenters’ view, institutional bilingualism requires the state to ensure that French and English speakers have equal access to provincial institutions, but should not impose personal bilingualism on the state’s representatives.

“On the appellant’s reasoning, the same requirement of personal bilingualism would extend to other public officers, such as New Brunswick’s premier and cabinet ministers,” Rowe wrote. “And since a parallel Charter language scheme applies federally, the appellant’s reasoning would also apply to the prime minister of Canada and to federal cabinet ministers.”

Rowe concluded Murphy’s appointment was lawful, and the appeal should have been dismissed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2026.

-- By Morgan Lowrie in Montreal.