Alta. judge won't step down in Yukon school case

An Alberta judge presiding over a court dispute between the Yukon government and the territory's francophone school board says he will not remove himself from the case, despite allegations of bias.

In a ruling issued Friday, Justice Vital Ouellette said he would not step down from the Yukon Supreme Court case he has been presiding over for the past year, based on bias allegations levelled against him by the Yukon government.

Government lawyers argued that Ouellette has demonstrated bias in favour of the Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon, since he was a longtime advocate for francophone education rights in Alberta before he became a judge in that province.

But Ouellette said his background in advocating for francophone rights has always been public knowledge, adding that he presided over a similar case in the Northwest Territories with the same lawyers involved and nobody complained at that time.

"We are very happy of the decision of Judge Ouellette to stay," Andr Bourcier, president of of the Yukon francophone school board, said outside court on Friday.

"We are already three-quarters down the road with this trial so, really, if we can be done by the 4th of February then everything will be fine for us."

In addition to being a justice with the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench, Ouellette is also a deputy judge with the Yukon Supreme Court.

Four-year funding battle

Yukon education officials have been in a four-year funding battle with the francophone school board, which runs cole milie-Tremblay in Whitehorse.

The school board argues that the Yukon government is holding back millions of dollars in federal funding that was intended for cole milie-Tremblay. However, government lawyers have argued that the francophone school is adequately funded.

The territorial government's allegation against Ouellette, and its demand for a new judge, came after Ouellette issued an interim ruling in June ordering the Yukon Education Department to provide money for three more teachers at cole milie-Tremblay. The government is appealing that order.

The government argued that Ouellette's interim ruling makes it clear that his mind is already made up on the court case as a whole.

Government lawyers did not comment on the case Friday. The court case resumes next week and is expected to conclude early next month.

But with Ouellette's interim ruling already under appeal, there is a chance that the judge's future rulings will be met with more appeals.

"If the government wants to appeal the decision, then that will be something else, but at least we would have made our case and all the evidence will be in," Bourcier said.