Coalition eyes court action against Bill 40
Non-profit citizens group says it needs to raise $100K to cover legal costs
A citizens’ coalition has joined the growing chorus protesting against the Quebec government’s education reform, announcing Friday it’s launching a fundraising campaign to challenge Bill 40 in court.
The group told a news conference that the Coalition Avenir Québec’s move to force Bill 40 through the National Assembly — and immediately fire elected French-language school board commissioners — deprived commissioners of the right to defend themselves legally, and that it is up to citizens and taxpayers to take up the challenge.
It contends as well that the law discriminates against francophones because the English service centres that replace school boards will still be able to elect commissioners, but the French side will not. The non-profit civil-rights group Ligue d’action civique will collect the funds through a portal on its website. The citizens’ group said it needs to raise at least $100,000 to cover legal costs.
“We lost rights that we consider fundamental: the right to elect the people who will administer our school administrations, and who will be held accountable to the whole population,” said Marc Stpierre, a former teacher and school board administrator with 40 years experience.
“We want to mobilize Quebecers against a law that is fundamentally discriminatory against francophones.”
The group said it speaks for the 300,000 people who voted in the last school board elections. It is protesting the fact that residents are being forced to pay school taxes but are being deprived of the right to vote.
“We are also contesting the unequal treatment of anglophones in the system. We believe that the rights of the francophone population in particular have been completely trampled on,” said Justine Mcintyre, spokesperson for the Ligue d’action civique. “If the law is so good, why did the ministry not apply it in an equal fashion?”
The CAQ invoked closure to adopt Bill 40 on Feb. 9, unexpectedly throwing elected school board commissioners on the French-language sector out of office immediately, as opposed to at the end of February under the original timetable.
French school boards are to be replaced by “service centres” where parents on school governing boards will elect members of service boards. On the English side, the service centres will be run by boards to be elected by universal suffrage. The CAQ allowed the elections to continue after anglophone groups threatened legal action.
The government says the law will modernize the school system and give more power to parents by eliminating elected commissioners. In 2014, only four per cent of eligible voters cast ballots for French boards; on the English side, turnout was 17 per cent.
Félix-antoine Michaud, a lawyer working for the citizens movement, said an initial analysis of the bill raises serious questions with regards to discrimination, democratic principles and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. It will be up to a judge to decide whether separate legal challenges of the law should be merged, Michaud said.
The Quebec English School Boards Association announced last week it will launch a legal challenge to the constitutionality of Bill 40, on the basis that it contravenes the constitutional rights of minority groups to manage and control their educational institutions.
The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE), which represents 45,000 teachers, has vowed to intensify its pressure tactics against the school board reforms.
The mayors of Quebec municipalities are protesting the law because of a clause added at the last minute that will allow Quebec to seize land from municipalities without paying for it and transfer the property to service centres to build schools.