While the law and policy just described for New Brunswick is clearly the most supportive of integration in Canada, it has not eliminated legal disputes over placement decisions. At the same time that teachers in New Brunswick were expressing grave concern about the effects of integration, one family was fighting the same battle for their daughter’s access to a regular class that the Elwoods had fought two years before in Nova Scotia. In this case, a legal challenge was made to seek compliance with a law the parents believed was consistent with the Charter. Joe and Anne Robichaud had been unhappy for some time with their daughter Nathalie’s placement in a special class. As they saw integration initiated in more and more schools in New Brunswick, they were increasingly anxious that things should change for her as well. In the fall off 1987, they arranged for her to attend a regular class but, when things did not go well, they concluded that school officials were not willing to do what was necessary to improve the situation, and they withdrew her from school. Nathalie spent very little time in school during the 1987-88 school year but the Robichauds declined repeated suggestions from school administrators that she return to a segregated class. As the 1988 fall term moved on with Nathalie still out of school, the Robichauds reluctantly pursued a legal remedy to their situation.
Developments in the Robichaud case followed closely the pattern of the Elwood case. In December 1988, Joe and Anne Robichaud filed suit against the school board. An injunction was obtained in January 1989 ordering that Nathalie be immediately placed in a regular class until the case could go to full trial. As a result, Nathalie Robichaud, like Luke Elwood, attended a regular class while the legal manoeuvring went on in the background. In June 1989, several weeks after the Special Committee of Legislators received its mandate to review progress toward integration, the Robichauds were scheduled to take their case to court.
