Michael Behiels very straightforwardly sets out the purpose of his book in the very first sentence: “This study is a descriptive analysis of Canada's francophone minority communities' quest for renewal and regeneration through constitutional reform and the winning of school governance” (xxi). Behiels bases his study on archived material from a number of francophone groups, government documents, court decisions, interviews with five francophone activists, and a large number of secondary sources.

Chapter 1 describes how provincial francophone groups became more politically assertive in the 1960s and 70s and that a national umbrella organization for francophone groups was created in the mid-1970s with the help of the federal government. In Chapter 2 Behiels outlines the lobbying done by francophone groups to get minority official-language education rights entrenched in section 23 of the Charter. The next three chapters consist of case studies that trace how francophone groups in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba achieved school governance. The final two substantive chapters before the brief concluding chapter look at the role of francophone groups in the Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional rounds.

Although Behiels' discussion of the mega-constitutional negotiations nicely highlights the various conflicting conceptions of the Canadian political community that were advanced during these rounds, the more original and interesting material in those chapters comes from Behiels' account of the various strategies and tactics that francophone groups adopted, often in discord with one another, to try to achieve or protect their constitutional objectives. Different provincial associations, for example, had different reactions to Meech; meanwhile, the national federation initially opposed the Accord and then supported it (246–247)—with the exception of the Alberta association the national federation achieved a “fragile consensus” in 1990 by supporting Meech on the condition that a parallel accord would address their concerns (272–273).

Behiels makes it clear that francophone groups, for a variety of reasons including some of their own making, did not enjoy much success during the mega-constitutional rounds; however, he also makes it clear that francophone groups developed political and legal skills that enabled them to achieve school governance through micro-constitutional politics. In his case studies Behiels details (almost overly so) how provincial francophone groups lobbied governments (unsuccessfully) and then turned to the courts for policy change under section 23 of the Charter of Rights. While judicial victories played an important role in the achievement of school governance, Behiels is careful to point out that legal mobilization was part of a larger political strategy in these provinces that involved leveraging court rulings with lobbying of politicians, provincial bureaucrats, the media, local education authorities and the francophone community itself. In Alberta, for example, although the Supreme Court's Mahé (1990) decision was not a complete victory, francophone groups used the decision to spark the policy process and to be a part of that process. Studies had been prepared by Alberta francophone groups to guide policy formulation involving complex issues of administration, including financing, and a report had been prepared that both gauged interest in the concept of having homogenous francophone schools administered by francophones and promoted that policy option.

The Lamoureux-Tardif report in Alberta confirmed that the francophone community was divided over the need for homogenous schools and school governance. Many Catholic francophones “feared that non-denominational French language education would further fragment their communities and create unnecessary tensions with their English-speaking neighbours” (180). Many francophones were also concerned that their children would not learn enough English in francophone schools. Such divisions were also evident in Manitoba and Ontario. Behiels notes that these divisions have their roots in deeper sociological transformations relating to secularism and urbanization.

Behiels concludes that a liberal interpretation of section 23 by the Supreme Court, skillful political negotiations by francophone leaders, and the political and financial support of the federal government (including giving provinces millions of dollars to implement school governance) were key factors that led to francophone school governance (325–326). This seems to be a sound summary of his “descriptive analysis.” Behiel ends the book with a helpful discussion of the challenges that still face francophone communities outside of Quebec and the legal and political methods that are being developed to meet these challenges.

The book is less convincing and useful in places where Behiels' affinity for pan-Canadian nationalism and a broad judicial interpretation of section 23 lead him to make underdeveloped and unconvincing assertions. For example, in the Manitoba case study, Behiels remarks that the Court of Appeal ruled against school governance because “the justices were too closely bound to their historical, social and political context to render a truly objective decision …” (213). This suggests that the only “objective” reading of s.23 would incorporate school governance, even though the excerpts from the decision suggest that the judges concluded reasonably that the framers of the Charter, including Jean Chretien, did not mean to include school governance in section 23. Similarly, in various passages throughout the book (sometimes oddly placed in the case studies), Behiels tries to counter critics of judicial activism by emphasizing how important a broad, but prudent, interpretation of s. 23 was to francophone groups and that such interpretations “did not distort the democratic rights of the majority, as many Charterphobes would have us believe” (193). What Behiels neglects to mention, however, is that francophone activists often tried to use Charter decisions and rights discourse to force their own policy preferences on other members of the francophone minority who were not supportive of homogenous French schools and school governance. The debate around judicial activism and rights is a complex one and Behiels does not do it much justice in his book.

Despite this criticism, I would very much recommend this book for anyone interested not only in the history of Francophone groups outside of Quebec, but for those interested in social movements, interest group politics, public policy, education policy and administration, constitutional politics, legal mobilization and/or the relationship between state and society.