MONTREAL – Quebec will ask the Supreme Court of Canada for permission to appeal lower court rulings that found a provincial law abolishing school boards violates English-language minority education rights.
A spokesperson for Quebec’s justice minister confirmed this week the province will appeal a ruling from the Quebec Court of Appeal rendered in April.
That ruling upheld a Quebec Superior Court decision from August 2023 which found the province’s law abolishing school boards violates linguistic minority education rights, guaranteed in Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The law, known as Bill 40, was adopted in February 2020 and transformed French schools boards, which were governed by elected commissioners, into service centres run by a board of directors overseen by the province.
The Court of Appeal said last month that the law “radically alters the mission of these school service centres compared to school boards.”
The law’s measures affecting English school boards were stayed pending the outcome of the court challenge.
As Quebec is now seeking to appeal again, spokesman Julien Garon says the government has no further comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025.
