English school boards hire lawyer to preserve board elections

The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) is preparing for a legal battle in the fight to preserve the province's school board electoral system.

Earlier this month, Education Minister François Blais said he will abolish school board elections.

• François Blais, Quebec Education Minister, to scrap school board elections

The decision to axe the electoral system hits English school boards especially hard, because of their status as a minority in the province.

QESBA representatives met with Blais following that announcement and said the meeting was "very difficult."

"We have held lengthy discussions with our members, and the answer is simple: we will never give up our elections or our minority rights," association president David D'Aoust said in a statement.

"Abolishing our elected system has absolutely no benefit to the classroom or our community," D'Aoust said. 

QESBA said it will be represented by Michael Bergman, a lawyer specializing in the constitutional rights of minority groups.

"The Supreme Court has said time and again that the linguistic minority must manage and control their own institutions — not only to preserve the language of education, but their identity and culture," Bergman said, adding that the minister's arguments won't stand up in court.

"This is not about money, it's not about practicalities. It's about children, it's about education, it's about constitutional rights."

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said the government wants to open a dialogue, and realizes the importance of school boards to the English-speaking community.

"We also know that school elections are quite expensive — roughly $20 million. Participation rates are very low — although higher in the English-speaking community, but still very low. There might be other ways to be assured that people from the community sit at influential positions in the school system," Couillard said.

In last year's school board election, the average participation rate for the nine anglophone boards in the province was almost 17 per cent.

For the French boards, voter turnout was less than five per cent.