Quebec English school boards celebrated a victory when a Superior Court judge ruled that parts of a provincial law abolishing school boards violate English-language minority education rights. The government said it is considering an appeal.
“The act does not allow the anglophone minority in Quebec to fully exercise” their rights, Justice Sylvain Lussier said in a 129-page decision released Wednesday. He ruled that several sections of the law cannot be applied to English school boards, including those that set limits on who can run for election and sit on the boards.
Bill 40, which was adopted in February, 2020, replaced school boards with service centres. The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) challenged the law in court, arguing it violates minority language education rights guaranteed in Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that it would grant the government too much control over education.
In 2020, QESBA, which represents 100,000 students in more than 300 schools across Quebec, successfully petitioned for a stay on the law’s application while awaiting the outcome of the challenge.
“We still have to examine the judgment in detail, but we are extremely pleased that our rights have been recognized and respected with this decision,” QESBA president Dan Lamoureux said in a statement Wednesday. “We truly hope that the government will decide not to appeal this clear decision that is based on our rights to manage and control our schools.”
Quebec Ministry of Justice spokesperson Isabelle Boily said the government took note of the judgment and “will analyze the possibility of appealing.”
The judge struck down sections of the law that tried to set limits on who could run in elections, which he said would eliminate about 90 per cent of those who were previously eligible.
“The minority is having the vision of the majority imposed on it as to who can represent it, whereas for more than 200 years, all members of the community have been eligible to take care of school management,” the judge wrote.
He also struck down provisions that would have placed unelected staff members on boards, as well as a rule that stipulated that a service centre’s director-general – a staff member – be designated as official spokesperson.
He also found that the Quebec government had failed to meaningfully consult the English-speaking community about the law.
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Stéphane Beaulac, a constitutionalist and co-director of the University of Montreal’s National Observatory on Linguistic Rights, said Justice Lussier’s decision was thorough and displayed a generous interpretation of Section 23 rights.
Prof. Beaulac said that before the judgment, he estimated there was a 50-50 chance the court would lean one way or the other. He said there is a high probability that it will go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
A ruling favourable to the English school boards at this level would be perceived as positive by francophones outside Quebec who benefit from the same constitutional rights, he said.
The Quebec Community Groups Network, an advocacy organization for anglophones in the province, applauded the decision. “This is a significant victory not only for the English-speaking community of Quebec, but for official language minority communities across Canada,” said the network’s president, Eva Ludvig, in a statement Wednesday.
While the Quebec government had argued that only parents with children currently enrolled in the English system should be considered rights holders in the case, Justice Lussier opted for a much broader definition of the community, ruling that rights should extend to everyone who is or has been eligible to enroll their children in English school.
“As the saying goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ “ the decision says.
Justice Lussier declined to strike down some of the articles that had been challenged, including a rule that school service centres must facilitate the sharing of resources with each other and other public bodies, as well as another that allows ministers to determine objectives or targets.
With a report from The Canadian Press