The Lester B. Pearson school board is wading into the fight against reinstituting a variant of Bill 104.

Tuesday night the board voted unanimously in favour of a resolution demanding the provincial government loosen restrictions on being educated in English.

The board's Marcus Tabachnick says the survival of English communities is at risk.

"It's time for our anglophone community to stand up and say the government's obligation is to all Quebecers," said Tabachnick. "As anglophones we too are Quebecers and we deserve to be respected and protected by the government we elect."

The Lester B. Pearson School Board and the English Montreal School Board have also launched petitions, calling on the public to support their cause.

Weekend rally by Bill 104 supporters

The resolution comes days after the Societe St-Jean-Baptiste and two dozen other organizations which support Bill 104 held a rally in Montreal which attracted roughly 500 people.

Those groups are calling for the Liberal government to use the notwithstanding clause to continue to limit access to English education.

Many of the protesters also rejected the Supreme Court of Canada, saying the nation's top court did not have the right to make rulings which affected Quebec.

Bill 101 limits English education in Quebec to those whose parents or siblings received the majority of their education in English in Canada.

SCOC rejected Bill 104

Before Bill 104 was passed, a few hundred people had 'acquired' the right to enter the English school system by entering a private English school.

Once the child had spent enough time in the private system, they were able to switch to public school, as were their siblings.

25 families took the government to court to fight Bill 104, and last October the Supreme Court of Canada struck down Bill 104, saying it put excessive limits on the rights of children to be educated in the language of their choice.

However the Court gave the province one year to come up with an alternative law before implementing its ruling.

In March, the Quebec government's advisory body on the French language said the province should apply Bill 101 to private unsubsidized schools, effectively denying immigrants any chance of receiving an education in English.

Also in March, language minister Christine St-Pierre said the province was considering using the notwithstanding clause to limit access to English education.