The defense lawyer defended the province’s involvement in the school acquisition files of the French-speaking British Columbia Council (CSF), during the cross-examination of witness Guy Bonnefoy, Friday, before the Supreme Court of the province.
This cross-examination took place while the CSF has been back in court since this summer to reclaim the schools that were guaranteed to him by past legal decisions, including from the highest court in the country, in 2020.
Lawyer Claire Hunter questioned the witness of the CSF on several school files, including those of Abbotsford, Burnaby, Pemberton and Squamish.
In the case of the Burnaby file, Claire Hunter pointed out that the province allocated $24.5 million to the CSF for the acquisition of a site in the district of Duthie Unionwhile the evaluation of the site was more like 17 million dollars.
In recent weeks, the witness has questioned the fact that the province wants to pay twice for a site that it delegated in the past to an English-speaking school board. THE CSF instead requests that it use its powers granted by Bill 22 to force the transfer of these sites from an English-speaking district to CSFby imposing the price she wants.
On Friday, lawyer Hunter also asked Guy Bonnefoy to confirm several times that the province had helped the CSF in the Sea-To-Sky sector: For each of the communities of Pemberton, Squamish and Whistler, the ministry was open and responsive to requests from the CSFcorrect?
The witness responded negatively, saying that the province had not supported all of the efforts of CSF and that there was still work to be done in Squamish, despite certain files that have moved forward.
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The CSF megacause affects 22 schools in British Columbia, including that of Aiglons in Squamish.
Photo : Radio-Canada
In 2023, the CSF obtained funding to acquire land to build a K-12 school in Squamish. However, construction has not yet been approved.
The defense lawyer also presented several emails to the court in which Guy Bonnefoy thanked representatives of the province for their support, notably in the case of the Burnaby school.
She also questioned the opening of the CSF to be ready to lease a site on a long-term basis in collaboration with the Matsqui First Nation, in the Abbotsford school file, while it was reluctant to do so for English-language school board sites.
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The CSF has been back in court since this summer to claim its dues.
Photo : Radio-Canada
The question of the expropriation of private land to build French-speaking schools was also discussed on Friday. THE CSF requests that this right – which English-speaking schoolchildren already have – be granted to them, as a last resort.
If the Council [scolaire francophone] has this power of expropriation and uses it to expropriate majority language schools, would the consequence of this not be a circle of expropriation with each other?
Claire Hunter asked.
Long legal battle
The former secretary-treasurer of CSF, Guy Bonnefoy, has been testifying on the stand for several weeks on the particular difficulties facing the CSF faces as a French-speaking council. Guy Bonnefoy has also held positions as secretary-treasurer in English-speaking school boards.
Guy Bonnefoy notably affirmed that the CSF had its hands tied to acquire land for its future schools, despite its legal gains in recent years. One of the solutions proposed by the CSF would be the use of the province’s powers, under Bill 22, to force these acquisitions.
This week, the question of the dysfunction of CA of the Vancouver School Board in 2016 — the same period when the Russell decision was rendered — was also mentioned as a possible factor in the limited progress of the CSF to give effect to the judgment.
The CSF is still waiting to own three school sites in Vancouver, including the Queen Elizabeth Annex.
