"[1] The rule requires courts to treat "both [the English and French] versions of statutes [as] equally valid and authoritative interpretations of the law.
The Act respecting the Codification of the Laws of Lower Canada relative to Civil Matters and Procedure requires that the Civil Code of Lower Canada be printed only in bilingual form, with English and French displayed on the same page: "[T]he two texts, when printed, shall stand side by side."
"[2]: vi Whether or not this is an overstatement, it is certainly true that side-by-side publication was the first step towards the eventual adoption of the equal authenticity rule for interpreting bilingual statutes.
[4] The rule was reaffirmed with respect to federal statutes as subsection 18(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,[5] when the constitution was patriated in 1982.
Bastarache et al., who raise this question, answer it in the affirmative, explaining that in their view, "the logic applicable to federal, Quebec and Manitoba legislation under the Constitution would also apply [even in the absence of a legislated statement of this logic]: that is, where two languages [sic] versions of a statute are enacted simultaneously both versions will be considered equally authoritative.