The country's top court has struck down a Quebec law that restricts immigrants from attending English-language schools, prompting reactions of disappointment and anger from provincial politicians.
The decision has the potential to ignite the province's divisive language wars and could even inflame divisions across the country.
The unanimous Supreme Court of Canada ruling went against two appeals by the Quebec government. In their decision, the justices called Bill 104 "excessive" and said it infringed on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bill 104 is a 2002 amendment to the province's language law. It closed a loophole that some parents had been using to send their children to English-language schools in Quebec.
A provincial appeals court ruled against the amendment in 2007, but the Quebec government appealed all the way to the country's top court. Now the province has 12 months to change two sections of its language law that pertain to education.
Premier Jean Charest expressed disappointment but said the provincial government would replace the law. However, he said any new law would aim to do much the same thing as the current legislation.
"We are disappointed by the judgment -- that's obvious," Charest said, addressing the provincial legislature on Thursday.
"At the same time, the Supreme Court gives the government a year to react to the verdict. That means it's the status quo. Obviously, we'll work on this in-keeping with the same objectives we set (in the law) and which the Supreme Court of Canada recognizes as valid ones."
Responding to the ruling, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe invoked the sovereignty argument as a possible reaction.
"It's the Supreme Court of another nation -- the Canadian nation. We need to draw lessons from this. For as long as we belong to Canada, there will always be situations like this."
Until 2002, students were able to enroll in private English-language elementary schools for up to a year, to become eligible to transfer to a publicly funded English-language school.
Once a child qualified for a public English-language school, the eligibility was transferred to his or her siblings.
Bill 104 changed that.
"The Quebec government said 'no way.' They didn't like this loophole because they felt that it was a way that people could basically buy their way into an English public education," said CTV's Rosemary Thompson in Ottawa.
Lawyers representing a group of Quebec parents argued that barring access to public education in English violated the constitutional rights of immigrants to the province.
Quebec law requires that the majority of children must receive their schooling in French. The loophole allowed students who had received most of their education in English to continue their schooling in that language in Quebec.
But the loophole affects so few students that the Supreme Court said it does not pose a threat to the vitality of the French language in the province, and that Bill 104 constitutes an "excessive" restriction.
Quebec's culture minister offered a brisk reaction to the ruling as she entered the legislature on Thursday.
"I am disappointed and angry," Christine St-Pierre said.
The opposition Parti Quebecois was outraged at the ruling. Its leader, Pauline Marois, said Charest had a duty, as the head of the Quebec nation, to protect the French language despite the court decision.
"The Supreme Court, a court named by another nation, has once again hacked away at a tool that is fundamental for the Quebec nation," Marois said. "How does the premier intend to correct the situation?"
With files from The Canadian Press
