The Villa Maria School will welcome Christian Corno on Monday as its new director general. He arrives with a pressing task: save the school from being pushed off the land it has stood on for 171 years.

Since 2023, the Sisters of Notre Dame, who own land on the slopes of Mount Royal as part of the historic Monklands Estate, have stated their intent to sell it – just not to the school itself.

The embittered standoff that has since erupted has seen accusations of bullying and legal action being taken. Such is the relationship now, the Sisters have halted communication with the school administration altogether, the school has said.

The Sisters, steeped in the school’s history having owned the land for more than 190 years and founding the school in 1854, have said their reluctance to sell to

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