Judge Sylvain Lussier rendered his judgement on Wednesday morning in a lawsuit seeking an emergency injunction that would force the Élections Québec to send bilingual voting mailouts.
In it Lussier, granted the injunction in part, ordering Élections Québec mailout voting reminders in French and English. But, the voting information cards will not be resent in English because the judge said it would be too costly and it is too late.
The ruling “orders the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec to prepare for mailing, by the dates set forth in the Election Act, the reminder card—which includes the list of candidates in the electoral district and indicates the polling stations on election day— in both French and English.”
Lussier suspended “for a period of ten days, the application of paragraph 13.2(1) of the Charter of the French Language, with respect to the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec, for the purpose of mailing informational documents during an election.”
Montrealer’s reacted to the news of the ruling, some saying this will actually allow some people to fully understand the information they’ve been given.
“I actually got my voter card in the mail yesterday and I noticed it was all in French, so it’s a great decision by the court. I think it’s fair,” said one Montrealer who was pleased with the ruling.
“Let’s remind ourselves that Montreal is a multicultural city and a lot of people speak both languages,” said another Montrealer.
The tribunal did not order the mailing of an English version of the registration notices and the voter’s guide.
“The evidence on the record convinces the Tribunal that this would be an unrealistic and extremely costly undertaking. The Chief Electoral Officer informs the Tribunal that it is possible to mail the reminder card in both languages if the Tribunal orders him to do so no later than today,” the ruling explains.
The court challenge came after Élections Québec announced on Sept. 1 that it would only send the documents in French to comply with Bill 96, after its request for an exemption was denied by Quebec’s French-language commissioner.
The law, adopted in 2022, allows some people to continue receiving services in English. Anglophones who qualify and Indigenous voters must contact the elections agency directly to request English-language information.
Élections Québec had said the campaign period is too short to print and distribute physical English versions to those voters. They also said it would cost about $6 million to print and mail the new documents.
In an email statement to CityNews, Élections Québec says, “The provisions of the Charter of the French Language stem from political decisions, and we do not grant interviews on this subject. We spoke out on this issue in early September to let English-speaking voters know how to access information in English. Following this morning’s ruling, we will be able to produce a reminder card containing information in both French and English.”
Lawyer Douglas Mitchell, acting on behalf of plaintiff Geoffery Chambers, says, “I think the judge basically saw the validity of our arguments, endorsed them at this stage, and saw that there’s a very substantive legal issue on dealing with fundamental freedoms and did what he could to ensure that the rights of Anglophone Quebecers to receive information regarding the vote, where to vote, how to vote, when to vote, will be received in English as much as possible in the circumstances.”
“[The judge] felt he was hamstrung by the fact that two of the notices, it was too late to send them out and that’s unfortunate and we don’t know what that means for the future. But I think to say in general, we’re extremely pleased with the results of the judgment.”
“The judge found that because the announcement was only made on September 1st, that it was practically too late and too expensive to require the DGE to send out those notices. But the judge did recognize that the reminder card, which is the little card that you go to the poll station with, is obligatory. But the judge clearly recognized that all three are probably obligatory, and but he was just confronted with an impossibility regarding the first two.”
‘Decision is a message to Premier’
The Task Force on Linguistic Policy is applauding the decision. Its president Andrew Caddell pointed out the organization was a leader in the issue and their Vice President Geofrey Chambers was the plaintiff in the case.
“We have been calling this decision voter suppression from the very beginning, and we have been joined by commentators and public officials across Quebec and Canada. This decision is a message to Premier Christine Frechette, French Language Minister François Roberge and French Language Commissioner Benoît Dubreuil, who deliberately prevented bilingual information: there are 1.6 million English-speaking Quebecers who deserve respect. As citizens and taxpayers, they should be treated equally with every other Quebecer.”
Caddell adds that, “While the vast majority of Anglophone Quebecers are bilingual, many who are not are the most vulnerable: the elderly, indigenous people, visible minorities, the rural poor and people with physical and mental challenges. Many do not have smart phones and are not capable of using a QR code. “
“What I said to the judge, I said, ‘I think it’s a virtual certainty that some people will be denied the right to vote,’ which is different from not going to vote, choosing not to go to vote, choosing not to go to vote, which people will actually show up and be told you’re not registered at the right place. That’s concerning,” explained Mitchell. “That was signaled as a potential risk by the Director General of Elections to the Minister of the French Language. And the minister chose to go ahead and take that risk nonetheless.”
“I think the judge was was lenient, but somewhat realistic,” said Caddell. “On the other hand, he was kind of creating public policy because he was saying, ‘Well the government shouldn’t have to spend this money.’ Well my feelings that they should, however going forward, there should be no question that the government does the right thing prints the information in both languages.”
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