Proposed Quebec constitution called another CAQ 'attack' on English schools

After years of trying to eliminate elected anglophone school boards, the Legault government is now proposing a Quebec constitution that critics warn could strip the community of its constitutionally protected control over its schools.

“They want to completely sideline the elected commissioners, who are elected by the English-speaking community,” Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Boards Association, told The Gazette.

“They want English schools to be an extension of the Ministry of Education.”

Ortona, also chair of the English Montreal School Board, said the proposed constitution would make it much more difficult for anglophones to protect their minority language educational rights under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

English school boards have taken Quebec to court over efforts to eliminate elected English boards, mandate French-only communications with anglophone organizations, and limit teachers’ ability to wear religious symbols such as the Muslim hijab.

Quebec has already eliminated elected French boards, replacing them with government-controlled school service centres. English boards remain only because of successful legal challenges, though the matter could ultimately reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

However, contesting provincial laws in court would be significantly more difficult under Bill 1 — the Quebec Constitution Act, 2025.

The proposed law would bar school boards, as well as universities, municipalities and other public bodies, from using public funds to challenge laws the provincial government deems to “protect the Quebec nation.”

Critics warn the provision would effectively block English boards from defending their rights in court. It would have the same effect on bilingual municipalities and on English universities such as Concordia and McGill, which have all taken the Coalition Avenir Québec government to court over its policies.

“Rather than try to win arguments that they can’t win, what they’re essentially trying to do now is just change the rules of the game,” Ortona said, describing the government’s approach.

“The only way we can manage and control our school system is if we have elected representatives who have the power and autonomy to make decisions at the local level.”

The constitutional proposal was prepared without public input by the CAQ government. It has the backing of Quebec’s French language commissioner and the linguistic rights group Droits collectifs Québec.

Premier François Legault has said the draft constitution is part of an effort to affirm the province’s “national, distinct character.”

Serving 100,000 students across Quebec, the QESBA — together with groups representing its directors-general and administrators — will present a joint brief in February when a National Assembly commission resumes its review of Bill 1.

In the strongly worded brief, the organizations call Bill 1 an “attack on school boards.”

They say that since coming to power in 2018, the CAQ government has “favoured exclusion, conformity, and restrictions on access to the detriment of its fundamental responsibility towards education. It has been concerned with dress codes and religious symbols rather than its fundamental mission: academic success.”

The groups note that the proposed constitution would “allow the government to order school boards to reject alternative funding sources, such as federal funds for culture, and to prohibit school boards from participating in federal parliamentary processes.”

They add: “The (Quebec) government could use these powers to isolate the English school boards, making them dependent on the provincial government and subject to the whims of the political party in power.”

Ortona said Quebec already blocks some federal money from reaching schools, calling it “another measure to control everything centrally from Quebec City.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the federal government provided $432 million to Quebec for air quality improvements in schools. Yet not one dollar of that money reached its intended purpose, Ortona said.

“We should have the autonomy to work with whoever we want, including the federal government, to support our students,” he said.

Ortona warned that if the constitution is passed as drafted, English boards could face even more constraints on hiring, language policy and day-to-day operations.

“Until the government understands that the English-speaking community is a partner in education, we’re going to be stuck in court challenges,” he said.

“They just want to run everything from the top down, and that’s never going to work when it comes to the English school boards because we’re going to fight that every step of the way.”

As of April 2024, the EMSB had already spent more than $1.3 million on just one of its lawsuits against the Quebec government — the challenge to Quebec’s secularism law.

CAQ ministers have criticized the EMSB for using public funds to challenge laws passed by the National Assembly. Separately, the Legault government is moving to prevent unions from using regular member dues to contest legislation in court, as a teachers’ union has done in its challenge to the secularism law.

Bill 1 makes only one mention of English-speaking Quebecers, and it is in the preamble.

However, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, who is spearheading the constitutional process, has said the law would not affect the rights of minorities.

Anglophone and civil rights groups disagree.

TALQ, a coalition of anglophone groups, has warned that the CAQ proposal “fails to acknowledge any historic rights” for English-speakers.

And the Ligue des droits et libertés has said the bill would “deny the place and rights of the anglophone community” and other minorities.

Opposition parties, constitutional lawyers, academics and universities have also criticized the plan as undermining rights. A lawyers’ group that promotes human rights and the rule of law has asked the United Nations to investigate the plan, arguing it infringes on fundamental rights.

The Barreau du Québec, the province’s lawyers’ order, has called it a “drift towards authoritarianism.”

Ortona said the Barreau “is not an institution that throws out words like that easily, so we should be very, very worried about where this government wants to go.”

ariga@postmedia.com

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