QESBA is happy with the decision and hopes that the Quebec government won’t appeal it
The Quebec government wants to turn English-language school boards into service centers, like it has done on the French side. The Quebec Superior Court ruled on Wednesday that this is against the constitution and goes against the rights of the province’s English-speaking minority.
JusticeSylvain Lussier’s 125-page ruling throws out a lot of Bill 40’s controversial parts. Bill 40 is the Legault government’s 2020 education reform law, which the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) challenged.
QESBA said that the law goes against the rights to minority language education in Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and would give the government too much power over education.
In 2020, the association got a stay, and in 2021, the Quebec Superior Court heard the case.
Because of this stay, organizations like the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) are still around today, while the French school boards have been wiped out.
In his decision, Lussier criticizes the fact that only a few people can run schools that teach in English.
He said it is a violation of Article 23, which says that parents from a province’s linguistic minority have the right to education in their language everywhere in Canada.
“To raise a child, it takes a village.
The judge used the old saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” to explain that the selection of community representatives goes beyond a group of parents with kids in school.
“The law should encourage community members to take part in school management so that the community can grow,” he said.
“What’s at stake is how culture is passed on.”
So, the court threw out the rules about who can run for school elections or be in charge of a board of directors.
“Limiting, directly or indirectly, the right of representatives to run for school elections, as the law does, restricts the minority’s right to management and control of its educational institutions,” he said.
The judge pointed to Pauline Marois, who, as education minister in Lucien Bouchard’s Parti Québécois government in 1997, had set up school boards based on language.
“It’s even written in the Charter of Rights that the English-speaking community may have the right to control its institutions,” Lussier said.
QESBA celebrates rulin
In a statement, QESBA says it is happy with the decision and points out that the decision takes into account decades of case law about the rights of minority language students to education in Quebec and across Canada.
In a statement, QESBA president Dan Lamoureux said, “We really hope that the government will not decide to appeal this clear decision that is based on our right to manage and control our schools.”
Russell Copeman, the head of QESBA, said that the Charter of Rights is there to protect the rights of minorities and shield them from what the majority decides.
He said that Wednesday’s decision was a “clear victory for the control and management rights of the English-speaking community.”
Copeman said that Lussier’s decision could be used to challenge Bill 23, which is the second bill to change the way education is done in Quebec in three years.
The proposed bill would let the government choose a director for each school service center and block some of their decisions.
Copeman said that Lussier killed a part of Bill 40 that would have given the director general the power to speak for the board instead of the chair. He said that it was ruled unconstitutional because it didn’t respect management rights.
“If that was thrown out, it would show that the government of Quebec’s plan to name the directors general of school boards in Bill 23 is clearly against the Constitution,” Copeman said.
“If Bill 23 is passed in its current form, we will definitely use arguments like these.”
A spokesperson for Quebec’s Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette said that the government is aware of the decision and will look into whether or not to appeal. The government won’t say anything else about it.