Yukon francophone school board trial resumes

A lengthy legal dispute between the Yukon government and the territory's francophone school board is back in Yukon Supreme Court for the next three weeks.

Lawyers for the territorial government and Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon appeared in court on Monday, in what should be the final leg of a year-long trial and a four-year-old dispute.

The francophone school board, which runs École Émilie-Tremblay in Whitehorse, has argued that millions of dollars in federal funds were earmarked for its school, but were diverted elsewhere by the Yukon government.

Lawyers spent Monday detailing who will testify when over the next three weeks. The trial is scheduled to wrap up on Feb. 3.

Deputy Justice Vital Ouellette, a French-speaking judge from Alberta, is overseeing the case despite accusations from the Yukon government that he is biased in favour of the school board.

Territorial government lawyers called on Ouellette to remove himself from the case last month, arguing that he was a longtime advocate for francophone education rights in Alberta before he became a judge there.

But Ouellette ruled earlier this month that he will see the Yukon case through to the end.

The territorial government has already appealed an interim ruling Ouellette made in June, in which he ordered the government to pay for three additional positions at École Émilie-Tremblay.