Quebec seeks to appeal mandatory English documentation for voters

The Quebec government seeks to overturn the decision allowing Élections Québec to provide English voting documentation.MONTREAL (CN) — On Election Day, the attorney general of Quebec requested permission to appeal the rulings compelling independent election-supervising agency Élections Québec to provide voters with English voting reminder cards in the next step of this judicial saga.Quebec Court of Appeal Judge Patrick Healy heard arguments from the AG and respondent Geoffrey Chambers, an Anglophone rights activist. On Sept. 1, at the start of the electoral campaign, Élections Québec sparked outrage when it announced for the first time since its inception that it would provide voting documentation only in French to comply with 2022 law “An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec.”Chambers contested the policy in court, arguing it violated Anglophones’ right to vote, and the Superior Court of Quebec ruled in his favor, compelling Élections Québec to prepare and mail out bilingual documentation. These are the decisions the attorney general seeks to set aside in its appeal request.Healy first wondered if the case presented to him was purely theoretical, which would be outside of his bounds, or if the merits were being questioned. Chambers’ attorneys explained there were no reasons to grant the appeal since the injunctions expire at midnight and the election is over, adding that there were no apparent flaws in the judges’ rulings, so an appeal would be pointless.“The courts don’t interfere on moot issues or theoretical issues on principle, so this would have to be truly exceptional, and we don’t think it is at all,” Doug Mitchell, Chambers’ attorney, explained to the media afterward. “We think the issue is completely moot.”For its part, the government claims the judges overstepped their boundaries by ruling as they did. The original argument denouncing Élections Québec’s French-only policy was based on section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to vote. However, according to the AG, linguistic rights are independent of the charter, as shown by the fact most other provinces do not provide bilingual voting information.“Case law holds that language guarantees constitute a comprehensive set of provisions, while fundamental guarantees are something else entirely; they are essentially like oil and water,” a lawyer for the attorney general explained.The hearing took place as Quebecers head to the polls Monday, with the bilingual voting reminder cards at the heart of this issue.“The government is very rigorous about pursuing this process, and in my view, suppressing the English-speaking vote, and they’re using the tools available to them to do that; I think it’s disgraceful and discouraging,” said Chambers after the hearing. “We have a good legal argument, and we’ve presented it to the court, and the court’s been pretty sympathetic so far; we’ll pursue it to the end.”He explained the English-speaking community has been worried about their ability to vote, not only because of the documentation issue but because poll workers have been instructed to speak only in French.“Actual individual voters who have a right to vote are not going to be welcomed the way they should be and not going to be allowed to participate in a way that’s equal to other citizens,” Chambers said.The policy does not apply to historic anglophones or to Indigenous people, and no proof is required if voters claim to be part of these communities to receive services in English, but Chambers considers this another barrier preventing English-speaking people from casting their votes: “It’s certainly creating a complication, which results in effective voter suppression.”Counsel for the attorney general declined to comment. Healy should deliver his decision on the request by next week.Courthouse News reporter Tatiana Mulowayi-Pelletier is based in Montreal, Canada.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads