Section 22 – Rights and privileges preserved

Provision

Rights and Privileges Preserved

22. Nothing in sections 16 to 20 abrogates or derogates from any legal or customary right or privilege acquired or enjoyed either before or after the coming into force of this Charter with respect to any language that is not English or French.

Similar Provision

See section 83(1) of the Official Languages Act, to the same effect. This provision was amended in 2023 to add an explicit reference to Indigenous languages.

Purpose

The purpose of section 22 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter) is to guarantee that the rights in respect of the use of English and French as set out in the Charter do not remove or reduce any right to use other languages that might be granted by other Acts or by custom.

Analysis

It might be possible to argue, based on section 22 of the Charter, that other languages should be protected at some future time. However, until a legal or customary right or privilege is recognized and having regard to sections 15 and 16 to 23 of the Charter, the courts cannot, at this point, confer equality on any languages other than the two official languages of Canada. (Reference re an Act to Amend the Education Act (1986), 53 O.R. (2d) 513, at page 567 (appeal dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada on June 25, 1987)).

At section 6 of the Indigenous Languages Act, S.C. 2019, c. 23, the Government of Canada recognizes that the rights of Indigenous peoples recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 include rights related to Indigenous languages. The Indigenous Languages Act is an example of a law that relates to languages other than English or French within the meaning of section 22 of the Charter.

The content is current up until 2026-01-14.