The EMSB will decide the fate of the Bill 21 lawsuit Wednesday evening

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The board of the Montreal English School is expected to decide Wednesday evening whether to appeal Bill 21, Quebec's secularization law, to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Under that law, school boards are prohibited from hiring teachers who wear hijabs or other religious symbols.

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The board will hold a special meeting at 7:00 p.m. to discuss legal plans.

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His decision comes six weeks after the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that Bill 21 should apply to Quebec's English school boards.

The law entered into force in 2019. It prohibits certain government officials in positions of authority, including judges and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work.

Prime Minister François Legault's coalition, Avenir Quebec, has preemptively invoked a clause in the Constitution that allows governments to deny some basic rights.

The EMSB sued the Quebec government, arguing that English schools should be allowed to hire teachers who wear religious symbols because English schools have special status under the Canadian Constitution.

In April 2021, Quebec Superior Court Judge Marc-Andre Blanchard granted EMSB a partial victory.

Despite this, although warning against the overuse of clause rights, Blanchard supported most of the 21 Bills but made concessions to English school boards.

However, the judge was rejected EMSB's opinion on the law breaks Gender equal rights in the Charter.

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While that decision is being appealed, EMSB must comply with the law, which means it cannot hire teachers who wear religious symbols.

In February 2024, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned Blanchard's decision regarding English schools.

The court found that Bill 21 “does not affect the language of education rights afforded to Quebec's English-speaking minority citizens by the (Canadian Constitution)”.

Responding to the decision, EMSB chairman Joe Ortona said his board based its case against Bill 21 on previous Supreme Court decisions.

“For decades, the Supreme Court has been unanimous about the authority of school boards to govern and control language and cultural issues,” he said.

“We believe that religion and religious freedom are cultural issues that we have the right to govern and control in our schools.”

Ortona said she was “heartbroken” by teachers who wanted to wear religious symbols.

“We believe that teachers should have the right to wear what they want, and we should have the right to hire teachers without arbitrary criteria, such as the clothing they choose, that has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of education that children receive.”

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In February, Lego hailed the appeal court decision as “a great victory for the country of Quebec.” He said Bill 21 would “guarantee” that people in power “appear neutral and impartial”.

Secularism is a “collective choice” and a “principle that unites us as a nation,” he said.

Legault Quebec said that clause “Canada will continue to use our public decisions as long as necessary to recognize the nation of Quebec.” This is not a negotiation.”

The decision was also praised by the secularist group Mouvement laïque québécois.

The appeals court decision “is a great victory for English-speaking citizens, our English-speaking friends, because they were deprived of the right to receive secular public services in English schools by the Quebec Supreme Court,” said Guillaume Rousseau, a lawyer. group announced in February.

According to him, the decision “but this clause is not something that violates rights, it is not something that is against democracy. It's part of our democracy and it's up to our elected officials.”

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