Ten Montreal children have been denied English education after a hard-fought battle by their families against the Quebec government.
Justice Pierre Dalphond in the Court of Appeals struck down a decision made Thursday in Quebec Superior Court ruling in their favour after the parents' request for access to English education was denied in July by Quebec's Ministry of Education.
Each of the students involved in the case had already been attending English-language private elementary schools and was seeking permission to attend certain English private schools.
On Friday, two of the decision to allow children in two of the families to go to English school was denied because they had attended French school at one time.
On Saturday, the eight remaining children were denied access.
Attorney for the families, Sacha Liben, said they are "extremely disappointed" by the decision.
The issue in question was that the schools received some provincial funding, meaning all students require Certificates of Eligibility to study in English. These pupils were not eligible because under Bill 104 those certificates only go to children who have a parent who has done the majority of their schooling in English in Canada.
The schools they attended for elementary school were not subsidized by the government, whereas the private schools they sought to attend receive partial government funding, and therefore made the students ineligible to attend, Dalphond ruled.
Last fall, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Bill 104, but put its ruling on hold while giving the Quebec government one year to come up with an alternative.
Since it hadn't come into full effect, the Ministry of Education ruled that Bill 104 still applied, but on Thursday a judge ruled that the delay in applying the decision was not a reason to deny a child's constitutional right to English education. On Saturday, that was overturned.
The students involved in the case are now ordered to attended classes in French.
