The Montreal school board is challenging Bill 21 to the Supreme Court

The English Montreal School Board (EMSB) files a challenge to Quebec's secularism law to the Supreme Court of Canada.

“We have always maintained that Bill 21 violates the rights of Quebec citizens,” said Joe Ortona, chair of the EMSB.

“It discriminates against representatives of religious minorities. This hinders their ability to teach in our system. And it disproportionately targets Muslim women of all backgrounds.”

The EMSB voted to appeal to the Supreme Court at a special meeting on Wednesday.

In February, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the province's controversial secularism law in a ruling on challenges to the law's constitutionality.

The ruling overturned a previous exception by High Court judge Marc-Andre Blanchard, which allowed English schools to hire teachers who wear religious symbols such as headscarves while at work.

A panel of appeals court judges heard opposition to the law in November 2022 from civil liberties groups as well as the government.

Prime Minister Francois Lego's government appealed a High Court ruling in April 2021 that upheld most of the law but made an exception for English schools.

His government claimed that the exception created an unfair distinction between Francophone and Anglophone schools.

Court of Appeals judges Manon Savard, Yves-Marie Morrissette and Marie-France Beach said in their summary judgment that the law “does not conflict with the unwritten principles of the Constitution, constitutional architecture, or any pre-Confederation structure. a law or principle with constitutional significance”.

During Wednesday's meeting, two commissioners expressed concern about how much has been spent on the legal fight, $1.3 million so far. But the commission members supported sending the case to the Supreme Court.