The English Montreal School Board is once again denouncing the Charter of Values.
Representatives of the largest anglophone school board in the province spoke at provincial hearings on Bill 60 Wednesday afternoon, saying the Charter of Values violates the Education Act.
"What do we tell our students when they can come to a classroom wearing a particular religious symbol but their teacher cannot?" said board chair Angela Mancini.
The board has said repeatedly that the Charter is nothing less than an attempt to bully minorities in Quebec, and that should the law ever come to pass it will not be obeyed.
Bernard Drainville, the minister in charge of the Charter, took umbrage to that statement and tried repeatedly to get the board to back down from its statement.
Mancini refused, saying that in the eyes of the most-successful school board on the island of Montreal, the Charter of Values was an unjust law that had to be disobeyed.
The EMSB said in addition to the civil disobedience campaign it would also launch court challenges, contending that Bill 60 violates multiple aspects of the Charters of Rights of Quebec and Canada.
Education Minister Marie Malavoy said it was ungrateful of the school board to disagree with the government.
"We're putting a lot of money in those schools, in those school boards, so I don't understand why they say before we have a law ... we're going to be civil disobedient," said Malavoy.
The Education Minister also disagreed with the EMSB about how 'diversity' can be defined.
"We think diversity means not having any religious signs when you are teaching," said Malavoy.
