Quebec government launches Bill 40 appeal to Supreme Court of Canada

Joe Ortona, head of the QESBA, says it's 'disappointing' that the province is launching its appeal of Bill 40 to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Nearly two months after Quebec’s highest court ruled that Bill 40 violated the rights of the English-speaking community, the François Legault government is taking its legal challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Attorney General of Quebec has requested leave to appeal to Canada’s top court, according to a filing obtained by CTV News.

This means the Supreme Court could have the final say on the constitutionality of the law since it was adopted more than five years ago if the court agrees to hear the case. Quebec’s English school boards have been fighting the law in court since 2020.

Last month, the Quebec Court of Appeal rendered what anglophone groups called a “historic decision” when it struck down parts of the law, which sought to abolish school boards in Quebec and reform school governance in the province. The unanimous April 3 ruling largely upheld a 2023 Superior Court ruling that said parts of the bill violated fundamental rights under section 23 of the Charter.

Among them was a provision that had abolished school boards and replaced them with school service centres, which was later stayed in the English school system pending court challenges.

The three appellate judges agreed with the lower court ruling that stated the bill violated the rights that allow certain individuals who are not members of the linguistic minority in Quebec to vote and run in school board elections for the English-language education sector.

The government argues in its 20-page brief filed with the Supreme Court on Friday that the panel of appeal court judges erred in its interpretation of section 23 of the Charter.

Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Board Association, said it is “disappointing” that the province is taking the legal battle further after the April ruling, which he thought put the legal wrangling to bed.

“We’re fully confident that we will be successful at the Supreme Court of Canada, and you know, at least we know that that’ll be the end of the road, and then the government’s not going to have a choice. They’re going to have to respect our constitutional rights. That is the only way that this will conclude,” he said in an interview.

“They’ve never been able to justify why they need to overhaul governance in English language school boards, and we’ve maintained that they’re unconstitutional. The courts have said that we’re right, through and through, Francophone justices in Quebec have repeatedly agreed with us,” added Ortona, who is also the chair of Quebec’s largest English school board, the English Montreal School Board, (EMSB).

When asked if the English school boards can continue spending money on legal challenges for Bill 40, he said “school boards cannot afford to not challenge the law” in order to protect themselves from a “hostile” provincial government.

He said most of the funding has come from private donors for years.

“The government is fighting Bill 40 with the taxpayer money of the English speaking community, of the Francophone majority, of all Quebecers, and they’re the ones who really need to take a look in the mirror, and eventually, I hope that they’ll come to the realization that this was never worth it,” Ortona said.