Canadian legal news — Quebec’s Court of Appeal has slapped down a provincial court judge who declared part of the province’s language law unconstitutional, ruling unanimously that he went “far beyond the limits of his jurisdiction.” The case started with a criminal trial, a woman’s request for English proceedings, and a judge who decided to pick a constitutional fight nobody asked him to start.
By Maplestime News Desk | Montreal, Quebec | September 19, 2026
Sources: Quebec Court of Appeal, Droits collectifs Québec, Jean-François Roberge | Last updated: September 19, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Quebec’s Court of Appeal ruled provincial court Judge Denis Galiatsatos overstepped his jurisdiction in a 2024 language-law ruling
- The judge, on his own initiative, declared inoperable a provision requiring French translations of court decisions “immediately and without delay”
- A three-justice panel unanimously found his actions “went far beyond the limits of his jurisdiction”
- The written reasons, dated Aug. 8, said the procedure “left too much to be desired” and relied on “pure hypotheses”
- Any future constitutional challenge to the provision will have to be redone correctly
- French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge welcomed the ruling: “Whenever the charter is attacked or violated, we will defend it”
The Case That Started It
In May 2024, Quebec court Judge Denis Galiatsatos was overseeing a case involving a woman charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist. The woman had sought a trial in English.
On his own initiative — nobody asked him to — Galiatsatos raised a legal question about a section of Quebec’s language law scheduled to enter into effect in June of that year, just days before the trial began. The law requires that a French translation of court decisions be made available “immediately and without delay.”
The judge said the law would systematically delay English verdicts because of the French translation requirement. In a procedural ruling ahead of the trial, he declared the provision inoperable.
The Court of Appeal’s Rebuke
His ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in late May. Then, in written reasons dated Aug. 8, a three-justice panel unanimously agreed that Galiatsatos’s actions in initiating the debate went beyond his jurisdiction.
“But initiating, conducting and resolving this debate, unilaterally and in anticipation, as the judge attempted to do here, went far beyond the limits of his jurisdiction.”
The journey to that rebuke took an odd detour. After Galiatsatos’s initial ruling, Quebec’s attorney general took the matter before Superior Court for a judicial review — which was dismissed due to the absence of “harm to the public interest in the judge’s ruling.” Undeterred, the attorney general brought it to the Court of Appeal, which said “the procedure followed here left too much to be desired” and that a judge alone cannot take it upon himself to decide a matter on “pure hypotheses,” a “deficient procedural framework,” and absent the “illumination of a well-documented context.”
Translation: if you want to challenge the constitutionality of this provision, do it properly. It’ll have to be redone correctly.
Civil Liberties Groups and the Government Cheer
Droits collectifs Québec, a civil liberties group that takes up French language rights cases — including the push to get the Supreme Court of Canada to translate unilingual English rulings delivered before 1970, when decisions started being systematically translated under the Official Languages Act — welcomed the ruling.
In the group’s opinion, the judge’s move “amounted to nothing less than an activist judicial refusal to respect not only the French language charter, but also the foundations of the principle of judicial impartiality and independence by taking up the question of the constitutional validity of the charter on its own.”
French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge said Thursday the government welcomes the ruling and sent a clear message: “Whenever the charter is attacked or violated, we will defend it. The future of the French language and our nation depends on it.”
Why This Ruling Matters Beyond One Judge
The provision at the heart of this — French translations of court decisions “immediately and without delay” — isn’t going away, and neither is the tension behind it: how Quebec protects French in its courts without disadvantaging anglophones seeking justice in their own language. The Court of Appeal didn’t settle the constitutional question. It just made clear that the next person who wants to litigate it will have to actually litigate it — not preempt it from the bench on a hunch.
Maplestime will provide updates on Quebec’s language law and court rulings as announcements are made.
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