English community groups challenging constitutionality of Bill 40

A coalition of English-language community groups is taking the Legault government to court, challenging the constitutionality of the province's education reforms.

The Alliance for the Promotion of Public English-language Education in Quebec (APPELE-Québec) is made up of 16 groups representing parents and teachers of the province's English school system. 

Bill 40, passed by the Legault government earlier this month, will see school boards changed into service centres and do away with elections for French-language boards, in an effort to decentralize power.

English school board commissioners will stay on until November to allow time for directors of the new English service centres to be elected.

"We have widespread support from English-speaking Quebecers residing in every region of the province and from every sector of the community to stand up and defend our right to manage and control our school system," APPELE-Québec said in a release issued Thursday.

The group claims Bill 40 infringes on the English-speaking community's right to manage its schools. 

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is among those backing the court fight.

In a statement, QESBA's president, Dan Lamoureux, says his association has tried to reason with the minister of education without success.

QESBA's board of directors, which represents some 340 schools and 100,000 students, has "unanimously given us a mandate to fight this law in the courts alongside our community partners," the statement says. 

'Minority rights have to be defended'

Geoffrey Kelley, chair of APPELE-Québec and former MNA, said the government could have easily exempted English school boards from the law.

Now, he said, his group is concerned that the election process proposed is too complex and, as designed, makes it difficult for people within the English community to run for a director position.

He said his group made concrete proposals to simplify the election process and to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the new directors.

Kelley said APPELE-Québec and its partners are also opposed to the level of authority the government will have in managing service centres.

"There are many areas in Bill 40 where powers that once were at the school board level go back to the minister's office, and we think that's a direct challenge to the control and management guaranteed in Section 23 of the Canadian constitution," said Kelley.

"These have been tested before the courts by many of the French-speaking minorities outside of Quebec."

With these minority rights at issue, he said, his group had "no choice" but to launch a legal challenge even if he had long been trying avoid a costly court case.

"Minority rights have to be defended in our society," he said.

Education Ministry defends Bill 40

A statement from Quebec Minister of Education Jean-François Roberge's office said Bill 40 respects the rights of the English community and that the ministry is confident that the law will hold up in court.

The Legault government made compromises to meet the English community's demands, the statement says, including the decision to allow parent administrators and community members to be elected to the board of directors of service centres.

The ministry said the amount of money going into fighting and defending the law could be better spent on student services.