(Quebec) A law professor takes up a legal fight to invalidate a section of the Quebec Elections Act that caused him to lose his right to vote by mail in 2019, since he had been outside Quebec for more than two years during his studies.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“It’s a matter of principle,” says Bruno Gélinas-Faucher, professor at the Faculty of Law at the Université de Moncton, who no longer wants anyone to find themselves in this situation.
Supported by M.e Julien Morissette, from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Mr. Gélinas-Faucher wants to have section 282 of the Quebec Elections Act declared unconstitutional.
This article allows any elector who temporarily leaves Quebec to vote by mail, but he must not have “left Quebec for more than two years on polling day”, otherwise he will have this privilege withdrawn.
The citizen could always buy a plane ticket to come and vote, but in fact, Me Morissette and Mr. Gélinas-Faucher argue that by withdrawing the right to vote by mail from electors outside Quebec, Quebec is depriving them “of the real possibility of voting in Quebec elections”.
This article “contravenes the right to vote of these voters in a way that cannot be justified within the framework of a free and democratic society, all contrary to the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms”.
Paradoxical
Mr. Gélinas-Faucher denounces the absurdity of the current law, which prevented him from exercising his right to vote while he was completing his doctorate in international law at the University of Cambridge. Postal voting has however been set up for students, he underlines.
I hope people will see the absurdity. To do a doctorate, it’s a minimum of four years.
Bruno Gélinas-Faucher, professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Moncton
It builds on a Supreme Court of Canada decision in 2019, which struck down a similar section of the Canada Elections Act, which set a five-year limit outside the country to allow the right to vote by mail.
The professor hopes that the Quebec government will listen to reason and modify its own law, but he is ready for a “long and arduous” legal fight. He estimates that a few thousand people are affected by this injustice and cannot vote by mail.
The Osler firm judges the meritorious cause and works for free on the file.
” [Il est] important to encourage democratic participation and promote the right to vote,” explained Ms.e Morissette.