The Attorney General of British Columbia today filed a Notice of Motion and 10 affidavits supporting the Province’s request to stay two terms in a judgment made by Justice Griffin in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Jan. 27, 2014.

If granted by the Court of Appeal, the stay of proceeding would suspend the effect of two terms of the court judgment, pending appeal of Justice Griffin’s decision.

For a stay of proceeding to be granted, an applicant must apply before a Court of Appeal judge and the application must demonstrate:

• The appeal has merit.
• There would be irreparable harm to the applicant if refused.
• The balance of convenience favours the applicant.

One affidavit from the Surrey School District says restoring the 1998 class sizes and compositions would mean hiring 445 new teachers at a cost of $40 million per year.

A second affidavit from Kamloops says that district would have to immediately install 16 new portables to accommodate the new classes.

The government estimates the told cost of the changes could be more than $1 billion for school districts across B.C.

The second part of the motion asks the court to stay Justice Griffin’s “unprecedented” order permitting the BCTF to publicly distribute an unredacted written submission to its members which quotes extensively from confidential cabinet documents.

with files from the CBC