French-only Quebec election voter guides prompted 160 complaints over five days

By Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman When Derek Heatherington, a retired college professor living in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec, heard that the provincial elections agency was sending out unilingual French information guides this year, he decided to act. “This situation really spoke to me, because we’re getting to the point here where we’re talking really about voter suppression,” he said. Élections Québec announced on its website on Sept. 1 that it was not sending out any English language guides due to legislation adopted in 2022 requiring provincial government institutions to issue public communications only in French. Instead of the usual bilingual documents, the agency suggested voters could scan a QR code on the guide to find the English information online. Heatherington responded to that announcement by filing a complaint and sharing…

This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription – Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.
Register
Already a member? Log in here

Add Your Voice

Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Contribute your voice on our contribute page.