The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) applauded the Québec Court of Appeal’s judgement in favour of maintaining the stay for Bill 40: An Act to amend mainly the Education Act with regard to school organization and governance.
QESBA and its co-applicants, including the Eastern Townships School Board, filed for an interlocutory injunction or a stay in May of this year to suspend the application of Bill 40 to English school boards arguing that the new governance model does not respect section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to manage and control our minority language educational institutions.
“We are very pleased with the decision today by the Québec Court of Appeal that maintains the stay on the suspension of the application of Bill 40 to English school boards pending a decision on the merits of the case in Superior Court,” said QESBA President Dan Lamoureux in a press release.
The Court of Appeal ruling means that if school elections proceed on Nov. 1 as scheduled, they will be on the school board model of elected school commissioners in wards and the Chair elected board wide, not on the Bill 40 governance model.
Yesterday MNA for Jacques-Cartier Gregory Kelley confirmed to The Record that a number of MNAs have requested a postponement of school board elections given the short time frame and confusion surrounding the legal challenge and appeal.
Bill 40 stay maintained
Record Staff
