Yukon calls judge's school ruling biased

The Yukon government is appealing an order to increase funding to the Francophone School Board.

The school board started a legal case against the territorial government in February, claiming that it is not getting the funding it deserves under the federal Canadian Heritage program that delivers money for French language education.

The trial is still in its initial stages, but Justice Vital Ouellette made an interim ruling on June 24, ordering the Yukon Education Department to provide money for three more teachers at cole milie-Tremblay, the territory's only French first-language public school.

The Yukon government is seeking to have that ruling overturned for a variety of reasons, including lack of notice and right to a full answer and defence, errors of fact, and bias by the judge.

"The conduct, interventions and rulings of the trial judge give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias," state the grounds for appeal laid out by the government in court documents.

Among the evidence of bias, the appeal document says Ouellette laughed and visibly grimaced during the trial to date "in a manner to suggest that he did not take the defendant's position seriously."

He also refused to adjourn the trial when the government's main witness suffered a stroke and could not testify, and refused to allow evidence from the government's expert witnesses, the appeal document says.

The original trial has been adjourned until January.

It isn't clear when the government appeal of the interim ruling will be heard.