Government of Québec Suffers Another Legal Defeat on Bill 40 – Attempt to Immediately Overturn the Stay of Bill 40 Rejected

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) takes note of the decision of Justice Moore of the Québec Court of Appeal to not grant the Government of Québec’s leave to appeal the August 10th decision by Justice Lussier at this time. Justice Moore
deferred a ruling on the permission to appeal to a hearing of the Court of Appeal before a minimum of three Justices, which he scheduled for September 14th. In the same decision, Justice Moore also refused to lift the stay granted by Justice Lussier, deferring this issue as well to the September 14th hearing date.
The Québec Government had filed a leave to appeal the stay of Bill 40 and furthermore, requested that the Judge immediately reverse the original judgement on the stay. This is the second reversal for the Attorney General of Québec in this case in the last two weeks.
“Our community has been steadfast in the defence of our rights to manage and control our minority language educational institutions under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is bigger than those of us who are here now. Our Community is fighting for the vitality and future of our minority community to benefit this generation and those to come.
Given that the implementation of Bill 40 continues to be suspended for English school boards until at least September 14th, the holding of school elections on November 1st becomes totally impractical. We once again call upon the Government of Québec to postpone the November 1st school elections until 2021 and to extend the mandates of current commissioners until those elections are held. This is the only respectful and reasonable response to the current situation,” said Dan Lamoureux QESBA President.
QESBA is the voice of English public education in Québec and represents 100,000 students in 340 elementary, high schools, and adult and vocational centres across Québec.