The Honourable Albert Roy
At its recent congress (in French) in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario (AJEFO) awarded the Ordre du mérite [order of merit] to two exceptional candidates. One of them was Laurie Joe, of West End Legal Services of Ottawa. After hearing all the comments about her and following her career to some extent, I have no doubt that she is most deserving of this award. However, my focus in this blog post will be on the Honourable Albert Roy, who also received the Ordre du mérite.
A retired judge, the Honourable Albert Roy was a lawyer in Ottawa and later represented the riding of Ottawa East in the Ontario Legislature from 1971 to 1984, winning in no less than four consecutive provincial elections. Now that’s really something! Justice Roy was introduced by Ronald Caza at the awards ceremony. Mr. Caza described the recipient as practical, persistent and friendly. Practical because the Honourable Albert Roy, as a judge and previously as a lawyer, always put the interests of the case and his clients ahead of his ego, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is not so common. Persistent because for a pioneer like Albert Roy the lawyer, having been accepted as a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1965, there was obviously a lot of work to do regarding language rights. As he said himself, you could have a case with Francophone clients, Francophone Crown attorneys and a Francophone judge, in Ottawa, but the proceedings were entirely in English. Indeed, you had to be persistent because what we take a bit too much for granted today simply didn’t exist at that time. And Mr. Caza said he was friendly, which, on the basis of a single evening, I can readily attest to. And much more!
Did you know that our conference room at the Commissioner’s Office is named for Albert Roy? When I was appointed Commissioner and set up my office, I wanted to recognize in some small way this visionary man to whom we owe so much. If Dr. Bernard Grandmaître is considered the father of Bill 8 (the French Language Services Act), then the Honourable Albert Roy is certainly its grandfather.
In 1978, Albert Roy, then an MPP, introduced a private member’s bill on French-language services. The bill was voted down on Third Reading (in French) in the Legislature. Typical of the time, Premier Bill Davis explained his decision by stating that the interests of Franco-Ontarians would be better served by a policy of gradual service expansion, rather than a symbolic declaration of bilingualism, which would only result in bitterness. Ah, the good old “baby steps” policy for French Ontario!
In any case, the Honourable Albert Roy, who is still active serving as a mediator, has helped the entire Ontarian Francophonie take giant steps forward. I am very proud that he was awarded the AJEFO’s Ordre du mérite.