Denied access to English schools 'unconstitutional': lawyer

More than two dozen families seeking to send their children to English public school have taken their fight to the Quebec Court of Appeal.

They were denied access four years ago when the province passed Bill 104, which closed a loophole in an already tough law that says a child cannot attend English school unless parents present an official document stating that at least one of them has attended an English Canadian school.

That means Quebecers who attended French school cannot have their children educated at a public English school in the province.

As well, children whose parents were schooled outside of Canada are required to attend French school in Quebec unless they attend a private school.

Brent Tyler, the lawyer representing the 25 families who are challenging the bill in the highest court in the province, calls the law unconstitutional and says it violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"The Constitution doesn't require that someone be English, ethnically, to go to an English school. They just have to meet conditions in the Constitution: citizenship and instruction," Tyler said.

Tyler asked the three Appeal Court justices on Tuesday to declare the 2002 amendment to Quebec's French language charter invalid.

For years, there was a loophole in the unamended law that gave any child who had attended private English school access to the public English system.

Often, children who did not have access to English public school would simply attend one year at a private school, just to gain access to the English public system.

The hearing continues Wednesday. A ruling is months away.