The Supreme Court of Canada has published all of its decisions in both official languages since 1970, immediately after the Official Languages Act was enacted.
But what about the decisions the highest court handed down prior to 1970? Should these decisions, which were mostly written in English, be translated so that they are available in both official languages?
Until very recently, the OLA was not interpreted as requiring the Supreme Court to translate its old decisions. However, in 2021, in response to a complaint filed by lawyer Marie-Andrée Denis-Boileau, the Commissioner of Official Languages, Raymond Théberge, held that the Court was in breach of the OLA by publishing unilingual decisions on its website, on the grounds that they constitute communications with the public by a federal institution.