People take part in a demonstration against Bill 96 in Montreal, Saturday, May 14, 2022. The English Montreal School Board says it will file a motion in Quebec Superior Court seeking a stay on a provision in the province's French language charter that requires the use of French in the majority of the English board's internal communications. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL – The English Montreal School Board says it will take the Quebec government to court over strict language rules requiring the board to communicate in French.
The board says it will file the motion in Quebec Superior Court today after it received a warning about its internal communications from the province’s language watchdog – the Office québécois de la langue française.
It says the watchdog has interpreted the new language law – known as Bill 96 – to mean that English school boards must use French in almost all correspondence with commissioners, principals and parents.
The Montreal board – the largest English school board in the province – says that the interpretation is shocking and would place an undue burden on staff who will now have to write messages in both French and English.
Bill 96 was adopted in May 2022 and most of its provisions came into effect in June 2023.
The EMSB has also brought one of several constitutional challenges to numerous other provisions of Bill 96.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2023.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said communication would have to be exclusively in French.
