{"id":898256,"date":"2026-09-16T19:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898256\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T19:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:20:13","slug":"judge-orders-elections-quebec-to-prepare-voter-reminder-cards-in-french-and-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898256\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec to prepare voter reminder cards in French and English"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 5 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A Quebec civil court judge says \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec’s plan to mail French-only voting information documents this year would infringe on the right to vote of English speakers in the province.<\/p>\n

Judge Sylvain Lussier ordered \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec to prepare election reminder cards in English and in French, in a judgment issued Wednesday morning. The agency had announced earlier this month that, for the first time in a general election, it would only mail French-language documents to comply with the province’s language laws.<\/p>\n

“The status of French is not restricted by the permission to inform English-speaking voters in their own language,” Lussier wrote in his analysis.<\/p>\n

The court was asked to grant a provisional\u00a0interlocutory injunction<\/a> and exempt the provincial agency from a section of Quebec’s Charter of the French Language that makes French the only language of communication for public institutions.<\/p>\n

In his decision, Lussier said he partially accepted the provisional interlocutory injunction, granting it for a period of 10 days.<\/p>\n

Geoffrey Chambers is the plaintiff in the case. He’s the former president of the Quebec Community Groups Network,\u00a0known today as the TALQ.<\/p>\n

WATCH | More on the decision:\"\"<\/p>\n

Judge orders \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec to ready voter reminder cards in French and English<\/p>\n

Judge Sylvain Lussier says \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s plan to mail voter information documents solely in French this year would infringe on the province\u2019s English speakers\u2019 right to vote. His decision orders the agency to prepare voter reminder cards in both languages.<\/p>\n

This video has been updated to clarify details from the judgment.<\/p>\n

\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec mails out three different documents to voters ahead of provincial elections: an election guide, a notice of entry and a reminder card.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The court said ordering \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec to produce and mail an English version of the first two documents at this stage was \u201cunrealistic and extremely costly.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the judge said he can only order the agency to prepare the reminder cards. Since the mail rollout for those documents falls outside the 10-day injunction period, another judicial process will be needed to order the actual\u00a0mailing of the documents.<\/p>\n

The reminder cards will include a list of candidates in the voter\u2019s riding as well as details on where and when to vote. Quebecers head to the polls on Oct. 5.<\/p>\n

Anglo seniors’ right to vote compromised, judge says<\/p>\n

In his decision, written in French, Lussier said it was obvious that “a great number” of anglophone seniors would not be able to exercise their right to vote in the absence of “comprehensible information.”<\/p>\n

He pointed to the recent federal election in Terrebonne, where\u00a0a single miscounted vote nullified the results,<\/a> to illustrate the importance of each vote.<\/p>\n

“Is it in the public interest to urgently deprive the English-speaking community of Quebec of the right it has always enjoyed to receive election information in English?” reads Lussier’s judgment.<\/p>\n

“To ask the question is to answer it.”<\/p>\n

In a statement to CBC, the Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government said it will analyze the court’s decision.<\/p>\n

“It is worth recalling that a ruling on the merits of the case is still pending,” wrote a spokesperson. <\/p>\n

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the French language.”<\/p>\n

\"SamplesThe provincial election guide and notice of entry prepared by \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec contained a QR code at the bottom prompting voters to visit the agency’s website for information in English. (Submitted by \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec)\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec’s attempts at getting an exemption<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a spokesperson for \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec, Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet, told CBC the agency had pleaded to no avail with Quebec so it could send basic voting information in both French and English. \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec argued there was a conflict between the law and its own obligation not to interfere with people’s right to vote.<\/p>\n

The agency’s attempts at dialogue with the provincial government, which began as early as 2023, were outlined by the court.<\/p>\n

Notably, the chief electoral officer wrote to Quebec’s commissioner of the French language in October 2024, reiterating his concerns and asking for a meeting with the Ministry of the French language. That meeting was not granted.<\/p>\n

A few months later, the chief electoral officer wrote to the minister responsible for the French Language, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Roberge, but that letter went unanswered.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2025, Roberge’s deputy minister wrote to the chief electoral officer, saying: “Elections cannot be conducted using French and English, as was previously the case. This is a choice made by the legislature.”<\/p>\n

Responding to the fallout around the announcement of French-only voting information documents, Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette said English-speaking voters could still access the information they needed online and that their rights were respected.<\/p>\n

\u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec had previously said voters could access information in English on its website or by calling the agency if they fell under the groups exempted by the Charter of the French Language.<\/p>\n

Lussier said the court was not convinced those alternatives were enough to allow all Anglophones in Quebec to access proper voting information.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, St-Arnaud-Drolet said \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec does not comment on political decisions, adding that it will be able to produce the reminder cards as ordered by the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-898256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}