Quebec Superior Court judge rules parts of Legault government's school board law unconstitutional

The Quebec government's effort to transform English-language school boards into service centres, as it has done on the French side, is unconstitutional and violates the rights of the province's English-speaking minority, Quebec Superior Court ruled Wednesday.

Justice Sylvain Lussier's 125-page ruling invalidates a significant number of articles found in the controversial Bill 40 — the Legault government's 2020 education reform law that sparked a challenge by the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA). 

QESBA argued the law 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.

The association was awarded a stay in 2020, and the Quebec Superior Court then heard the case in 2021.

That stay is why institutions like the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) continue to operate today while the French school boards have been abolished.

Lussier's ruling specifically criticizes the limitations on who governs English-language educational institutions.

He confirmed it is a violation of Article 23, which grants parents belonging to a linguistic minority in a province the right to education in their language throughout Canada.

Quoting the old adage, "It takes a village to raise a child," the judge said the designation of representatives from the community goes beyond a group of parents with children enrolled in school.

"The law must aim to promote community members' participation in school management for the development of the community," he said.

"The issue at stake is the transmission of culture."

The court, therefore, rejected the limitations imposed on who can run for school elections or lead a board of directors.

"Limiting, directly or indirectly, as the law does, the right of representatives to run for school elections restricts the minority's right to the management and control of its educational institutions," he said.

The judge cited Pauline Marois who, as education minister in Lucien Bouchard's Parti Québécois government in 1997, had established school boards based on linguistic criteria.

"It is even written in the Charter of Rights that the English-speaking community may have the right to control its institutions," Lussier said.