Alberta must pay costs in bilingual-ticket case: top court

OTTAWA — The country's top court has decided that Alberta must cover about $120,000 in legal costs for a francophone man who challenged a $54 traffic ticket that was not written in both of Canada's official languages.

In an unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal from the Alberta government, ruling that the Superior Court had jurisdiction to order the payment.

Gilles Caron, charged with failing to make a left turn safely in December 2003, had been seeking advanced cost awards to cover legal fees related to having an expert witness testify in his case, which is now before the Alberta Court of Appeal.

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