 851, prior to the language rights hearing, the counsel for the government sought to have Bastarache recuse himself for reasonable apprehension of bias due to his history of championing the French language.In an application to Bastarache, he held that he was not biased to hear the case, and so did not recuse himself.Major and Bastarache, writing for a unanimous court, applied a purposive interpretation to section 23 of the "Charter".