Partial victory in lawsuit over French-only Quebec election voting mailouts

Quebec Superior Court ordered Elections Quebec to send reminder cards in both French and English.

The court also ruled that it would not force the agency to resend the original voter information cards, which were sent only in French.

“The evidence on the record convinces the tribunal that this would be an impractical and extremely costly undertaking,” the Superior Court ruling from Justice Sylvain Lussier on Wednesday said. “The tribunal will not order the dispatch of an English version of the registration notices and the voter’s guide.”

The ruling adds, however, that Elections Quebec can send out reminder cards in both languages.

The court ordered Quebec’s chief electoral officer to prepare the reminder card with a complete list of candidates along with polling stations in both languages. By doing so, the court suspended the Charter of the French Language for 10 days “for the purposes of sending information documents during an election.”