Constitutional appeal challenging Quebec legislation requiring public signs, commercial advertising, and firm names to appear exclusively in French.
The Court held that freedom of expression under both the Canadian Charter and the Quebec Charter includes expression in the language of one’s choice and extends to commercial expression.
Although Quebec’s objective of protecting the French language was pressing and substantial, the French-only requirement failed proportionality review because marked predominance of French, rather than exclusivity, would have been a less impairing measure.
The Court also held the impugned provisions infringed the Quebec Charter’s guarantee against discrimination based on language, while upholding the formal validity of the override provisions except to the extent of impermissible retrospective operation.