Law360 Canada ( December 8, 2023, 12:15 PM EST) -- Appeal by Appellants from a judgment of the Northwest Territories Court of Appeal which affirmed the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment of the Northwest Territories’ (Minister) decisions denying applications for admission to French-language schools made by non-rights holder parents. The Government of the Northwest Territories operated minority language schools offering instruction in French. Pursuant to s. 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter), some families had a constitutional right to send their children to these schools. The Ministerial Directive: Enrolment of Students in French First Language Education Programs (Directive) was adopted by the Minister to allow students who did not qualify under the Charter to be admitted to the schools provided they met the criteria established in the Directive. Five parents, who did not hold the constitutional right guaranteed by the Charter, submitted applications for admission to a French first language education program asking the Minister to exercise her discretion to admit their children. Their applications were denied. On judicial review, the Minister’s decisions were set aside mainly because they did not reflect a proportionate balancing of the protections conferred by s. 23 of the Charter. The applications for admission were referred back to the Minister for reconsideration. The majority of the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals and restored the Minister’s decisions concluding that the Minister was not required to consider s. 23 of the Charter in exercising her discretion because the parents were not rights holders under that provision. The Appellants submitted that the Minister’s decisions engaged the values underlying s. 23 of the Charter while the Minister took the opposite view....