EMSB Seeks Bill 21 Waiver Pending Appeal Decision

The board says it wants to be able to hire staff wearing religious symbols while listening to Quebec’s appeal of the board’s lower court victory.

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The Montreal English School Board on Monday petitioned the Quebec Court of Appeals for a temporary waiver of the provisions of Bill 21 pending an appeal by the provincial government of a lower court ruling that found the law violated the right. constitutionally protected from the English-speaking minority to administer and control. their institutions.

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The Superior Court ruling, handed down last April, upheld many of the provisions of Bill 21, but exempted English-language school boards from its application. The provincial government later launched an appeal of that decision.

In a statement posted on its website, EMSB noted that the appeal process could take up to a year and in the meantime, “EMSB and other English-speaking school boards are still unable to hire principals, assistant principals and teachers who wear religious symbols.”

Bill 21 prohibits provincial officials in positions of authority, a category the Legault government has decided includes teachers in public schools, from wearing religious symbols at work. While the law allows an exemption for those public officials who wore religious symbols and were employees of the province prior to the adoption of Bill 21, those same employees cannot be promoted or transferred in the future unless they remove those symbols while they are at work.