The Montreal school board is asking the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Quebec secularism law

The debate over the constitutionality of Quebec's secularism law is poised to go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

On Wednesday evening, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) voted in favor of asking the Supreme Court of Canada to rule on the 21 bills following a February 29 decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal that upheld the law.

At a special board meeting, 12 EMSB commissioners voted in favor of sending the appeal to the Supreme Court. One member opposed and one abstained.

In a unanimous decision, the province's highest court upheld a law that would ban public sector employees, including teachers, judges and police officers, from wearing religious symbols on the job.

The decision was a blow to EMSB, which had previously been exempted from the law following a Quebec Supreme Court ruling.

This is an evolving story that will be updated.