Alta to pay legal bill for trucker fighting unilingual traffic ticket

EDMONTON — The province of Alberta must pay the legal costs of a francophone truck driver who is fighting a $54 ticket he received more than seven years ago for failing to make a safe left.

French-speaking Gilles Caron, who lives and works in Alberta, is fighting the ticket on the grounds that it was not written in both of the country’s official languages.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the province must cover Caron’s legal costs – estimated to be about $120,000 so far – mainly because the matter needs to be resolved and Alberta upped the ante by spending thousands of dollars to bring in expert witnesses on linguistic issues.

In rejected an appeal from the Alberta government, the top court in the land unanimously agreed it is in the public interest that Caron receive financial support to continue his legal battle because of the consequences of his case.

According to a report in the Edmonton Journal, the currently unemployed trucker was pleased the Supreme Court ruled in his favor.

"I was confident that I would win, but also very worried. It could have meant bankruptcy for me had I lost," Caron is quoted as saying.

In making the ruling Justice Ian Binney said the central issues in Caron’s case would not be resolved if he were forced to abandon his defense because it was too costly.

Despite the ruling on legal costs, however, the main issue is still to be decided – whether there is a constitutional right to have laws in Alberta written in English and French.

The main challenge against the traffic ticket is expected to be scheduled by the appeal court soon. If the case is decided in Caron’s favour, it could force Alberta to spend millions of dollars to ensure that its laws, courts, legislature, and public services are bilingual.