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Quebec’s English School Boards Association, also known as QESBA, is calling on the provincial government to withdraw Bill 1 — the Legault government’s proposed Constitution Act.
Representatives of QESBA appeared virtually at the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s general consultation on the bill Tuesday afternoon to relay its concerns about the legislation.
The association’s brief on Bill 1 was tabled at the National Assembly on Tuesday.
In October 2025, Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled the proposed constitution, which seeks to defend Quebec’s use of the notwithstanding clause “without any requirement to contextualize or justify the provision.”
Its founding principles include protecting the common values of the province, such as the French language, secularism, the right to abortion and equality between men and women.
Bill 1 modifies more than a dozen laws, including the Quebec Charter, to better balance the “collective rights of the Quebec nation” with individual rights, according to the bill’s preamble.
Since it was introduced, the legislation received pushback from several groups, including the Quebec Bar Association, anglophone rights group TALQ, and 28 law professors, political scientists and other academics who questioned the legitimacy of the process in an op-ed in Le Devoir.
QESBA’s brief explains the association’s opposition to sections of the bill that would limit institutions’ ability to contest measures taken by the Quebec government and undermine the autonomy of English school boards.
“The 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,” the brief reads.
Justice minister deflects criticism of bill
After the consultation, QESBA president and English Montreal School Board (EMSB) chair Joe Ortona said he took issue with Jolin-Barrette deflecting the association’s concerns about the proposed constitution.
Rather than discuss the points QESBA raised, Jolin-Barrette questioned Ortona about whether he supports equality between men and women, if he believes Quebec is a nation and whether French is Quebec’s official language.
Jolin-Barrette also took aim at the EMSB’s ongoing legal challenges against Quebec’s language law, Bill 96, and the secularism law Bill 21.
Simon Jolin-Barrette discusses Bill 96 and its possible impact on future court rulings. (Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC)
“Regarding the challenge to Bill 96, how much has the English Montreal School Board spent so far in legal fees?” Jolin-Barrette asked Ortona, referring to the ongoing case launched by the board in 2022.
The Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear the court challenge against Quebec’s controversial secularism law on March 23, after the EMSB, among others, requested it.
“When it comes to consulting in the English-speaking community, the consultation is a sham. It’s really just a symbolic gesture,” Ortona said in an interview on Tuesday.
“The debate isn’t really an intellectual one. It’s just sort of like baiting into a debate that fuels nationalist sentiment and nothing more.”