Caraquet Mayor Bernard Thériault said he felt vindicated after hearing the Supreme Court of Canada would hear a case he and a group of Acadian Peninsula mayors filed regarding the closure of the Caraquet and Tracadie courthouses in 2022.
Acadian Peninsula Mayors Forum Inc. believes that the closure violates language rights.
Although Thériault said residents can receive services in French at the nearest courthouse an hour away in Bathurst, NB, the mayor said the courthouse is an institution that must be protected by official language laws.
“Because a courthouse is more than just a place where you have trials. A courthouse is one of the institutions that is necessary for a healthy society to thrive and progress in terms of progress and we’re not getting that,” Thériault said.
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In 2024, the King’s Bench Court in New Brunswick ruled that the closure was carried out without considering the linguistic rights of the region’s francophone community, but this was overturned the following year in the Court of Appeal.
Now, the Supreme Court of Canada will decide whether the closures implemented four years ago were legal.
Section 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to distinct educational and cultural institutions necessary for the preservation of linguistic communities in New Brunswick.
That’s why the province has separate school systems and health services.
Stéphanie Chouinard, who serves on Canada’s official language rights expert panel, said she understands why this is relevant to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“I think the crux of the issue is determining whether the courthouse can be seen as an institution that had an educational or cultural influence on the Acadian community or the Anglo-New Brunswicker community,” said Chouinard, who is a political science professor at the Royal Military College.
“So this is an unresolved question that the nine justices of the Supreme Court seem to want to resolve.”
Theriault said he was open to settling the matter out of court but was very clear about what would happen.
“We want our justice system back. And the justice system we had at that time had one judge, who had 18 jobs,” he said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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