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A Quebec Superior Court judge has ruled that some parts of Bill 101 will not apply to English school boards until a legal challenge of the provisions winds its way through the courts.
The decision lifted parts of the Charter of the French Language that required English school boards to write exclusively in French when communicating with other English-speaking community organizations, including the Quebec English School Boards Association and the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec.
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“This is a significant win,” said Joe Ortona, chair of the English Montreal School Board, which filed a motion requesting the suspension in November.
“While we offer rich programming in French in our schools and are committed to ensuring our students have strong French-language capabilities so that they can live and work in Quebec, it is important to emphasize that we are an English-language school board and a key institution of the English-speaking community.”
Justice Suzanne Courchesne’s 38-page decision, dated April 10, means that for now, six articles of the charter, commonly known as Bill 101, will not apply to English boards, “with the exception of situations where the partner or contractor of the (board) requires the use of the official language.”
The articles in question refer to communication, contracts and the provision of services.
The suspension will stand until the courts decide on the merits of the EMSB’s challenge of Bill 96, the Legault government’s wide-ranging revamp of the charter.
In November, Ortona said under the law, the principal of an English school, for example, would have to write in French when reaching out to English-language arts teachers about a training workshop that will take place in English.
The Office québécois de la langue française dismissed the EMSB’s concerns, saying Bill 96 did not change rules regarding the language of communication for boards.
This report will be updated.
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