Benjamin Franklin famously wrote: “In this world nothing can be certain, except death and taxes.”

Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, however, comes pretty close. It is the ironclad constitutional protection of minority-language education rights in this country. It has consistently been interpreted by Quebec courts to uphold the right of the English-speaking minority to control and manage its school system. And it’s exempt from the application of the notwithstanding clause.

After the Coalition Avenir Québec government adopted Bill 40 in 2020, abolishing and replacing school boards with service centres under greater government control, the province’s English boards challenged the law as unconstitutional.

In 2023 Quebec Superior Court Judge Sylvain Lussier agreed, ruling in no uncertain terms that much of Bill 40 infringes on the English-speaking community’s constitutional rights to govern and control its educational institutions.

The CAQ government, however, appealed the judgment.

In April of this year, Quebec Court of Appeal judges Robert Mainville, Christine Baudouin and Judith Harvie handed down their........

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