The post Official Languages Act (1969) era created in the French minority communities in Canada a situation where bilingualism legitimated one's cultural and linguistic identity. The immersion schools being the only so-called French schools available to the minorities in most regions of Canada led to linguistic transfer and cultural assimilation. In 1982, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (and its Section 23) seemed to make possible a reversal of this trend by formally recognizing the legal and constitutional rights of francophones to instruction in French as a first language, and control of their schools. However, the provincial governments did not interpret Section 23 in the same light as did the French communities: hence, court challenges sprang up all over the country. The ''judicialisation'' of minority school rights is the subject of this article which will focus mostly on the Bugnet case in Alberta, being the most representative in this judicial struggle as it went as far as the Supreme Court of Canada (Mahe Judgment, 1990). Beyond an analysis of the phenomenon identified above, this study's main objective is to look at this judicialisation process, at its genesis and results, and also at the very positive and irradiating effect on the communities.