By Trevor Greenway

The head of the Western Quebec School Board (WQSB) is praising Quebec’s highest court after it found that sections of Bill 40, which would have abolished English school boards, were unconstitutional. 

In a unanimous decision handed down on April 3, three judges from the Quebec Court of Appeal largely upheld a 2023 Superior Court ruling that declared several parts of the bill violated rights guaranteed under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Executive director of the WQSB George Singfield says the result – which keeps English school boards intact with elected commissioners – is a huge victory, not only for English education in Quebec, but English rights as a whole.  

“I think at the root of everything is the infringement that has been brought forward by the Quebec English School Board on the rights of the anglophone community,” said Singfield, referring to the QESBA, the Montreal English School that first brought the court challenge against Bill 40.  “And so that, I believe, is probably the biggest gain in the decision that was made yesterday – the recognition of those fundamental rights.”

The Legault government introduced Bill 40 to abolish all school boards across the province and turn them into service centres with appointed commissioners. The bill was passed in 2020, but English school boards fought – and won – to keep control of its schools. French school boards were abolished and are now called service centres. 

“It really does reinforce our English-speaking communities in the province, to manage and control our schools and centres, our institutions – that’s the underlying piece,” said Singfield. 

He explained that under Bill 40, English school boards would’ve been abolished and converted into school service centres. The WQSB’s elected council of commissioners would’ve been abolished, and the government would’ve appointed commissioners. This was among the major fears of English school boards across the province, as local representatives – current, former and prospective parents and residents – would be barred from running in elections, and a commissioner would’ve been appointed. 

“At stake was losing the ability to govern our own schools,” said WQSB Commissioner chair Joanne Labadie. “Pre Bill 40, it is the Council of Commissioners that chooses the director general, and the director general reports directly to them, and so this would have given the government the opportunity to appoint whoever they wanted in that – it could have been a friend, someone with different political ideology or cultural leanings, and they would have been able to impose it.”

The 90-page ruling also stated that funding must be the responsibility of minority language representatives and can’t be controlled by the provincial government. 

The ruling also struck down a Quebec provision that argued that only parents with children presently enrolled in English schools are rights holders under section 23 of the Canadian Charter. 

No real path to Supreme Court

“This came quick,” said Labadie about the court’s decision, comparing this trial to the original QESBA challenge, which took a judge 28 months to render a decision.  “And the decision was pretty clear, and we’re all just so thrilled to have our rights recognized once again with this decision and just hope that the government will not appeal it to the Supreme Court. If they do, we’re ready for it.”

The Quebec government has not announced whether or not it will seek to appeal the decision. However QESBA president Joe Ortona told the Montreal Gazette that he doesn’t see a path for the government to appeal the new ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. 

“This is now, on Bill 40, the fourth sweeping victory that we got … so the government has lost on every single point, in every single argument, in every single instance of the Quebec courts, over and over and over again,” he said.

The English Parents’ Committee Association (EPCA), a coalition of parents’ committees of Quebec English school boards, said it was “thrilled” with the announcement. 

“This is a historic victory,” said EPCA president Katherine Korakakis. “Not just for parents, but for every member of our community who believes in shaping our children’s future. The court’s decision is a powerful reminder that our voices matter, and our right to govern our schools is non-negotiable.”