Anglophones hail Quebec ruling ordering elections agency to send bilingual documents

MONTREAL – Members of Quebec’s anglophone community are hailing a Quebec Superior Court ruling that ordered Élections Québec to mail voting reminder cards in both French and English.

The ruling provides a temporary resolution to a controversy triggered by the adoption of legislation in 2022 that required public institutions to communicate with citizens in French, with few exceptions.

The ruling suspends provisions of Quebec’s Charter of the French language for 10 days so that the provincial agency overseeing the elections can send out the reminder cards for voters in both languages.

“This is an important victory for English-speaking Quebecers and for democratic participation in Quebec,” said Eva Ludvig, president of anglophone advocacy group TALQ.

Élections Québec said at the beginning of the election campaign that it was forced to send out voter guides in French only to comply due to the existing legislation.

The agency said it hadn’t previously sent out French only voter guides, before 2026, but noted it added a QR code as an option for those who wanted to access information in English online.

Ludvig’s organization had heavily criticized the move, saying it infringed on the right to vote.

Justice Sylvain Lussier agreed, writing in his 23-page decision that there was concern of serious and irreparable prejudice against Quebecers who do not understand French.

Geoffrey Chambers, a Westmount resident, was the lead plaintiff in the case. Chambers was a former president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, which later changed its name to TALQ.

He took on the case as a private citizen, asking the judge to grant an emergency order to get the elections agency to provide English copies of the provincial election guide, a notice sent to electors, and a reminder card.

He argued that the QR code isn’t an adequate substitute because many people can’t access them, including some seniors and people without cellphones or reliable internet.

“The proof raises concerns that a large number of English-speaking seniors could be unable to exercise their right to vote due to a lack of understandable information,” Lussier wrote.

Doug Mitchell, the lawyer representing Chambers, welcomed Lussier’s judgment.

“What the judge did is he recognized that there was a serious problem with this change in practice, that it raised important fundamental (questions) about the right to vote and right to get information to vote,” he said over the phone.

According to the judge, there is also concern that election results could be invalidated if the right to vote is infringed on.

He pointed to the result of the 2025 federal byelection in Terrebonne, which was invalidated because of a clerical error on the return address for some mail-in ballots.

A recount handed the win to Liberal Tatiana Auguste by a single vote.

The one-vote result triggered a challenge after a Bloc voter’s mail-in ballot was returned because of an incorrect postal code on an Elections Canada return envelope

“It is clear that the loss of the right to vote in an election is permanent,” wrote Lussier. “The loss of a single vote was enough to invalidate the federal election in Terrebonne.”

However, lawyers representing the elections authority said it was impossible to reprint all documents to include English information given the time and budgetary constraints, which Lussier acknowledged in his decision.

He nonetheless asked Élections Québec to send the voter reminder card in both official languages. The list of candidates on the cards is finalized at 2 p.m. on Sept. 17, and the agency had already planned to print out reminder cards to mail out after that deadline.

Lussier’s ruling suspends provisions of the Charter of the French language for 10 days to allow the printing of bilingual reminder cards.

In an email, spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet said the agency will be able to provide the reminder cards. She added that the agency must respect the existing legal framework to fulfil its mandate to remain impartial and neutral.

“It is up to other stakeholders to challenge the validity of laws if they deem it appropriate,” she wrote.

Élections Québec had asked the government to be exempt from the updated provisions of the French language law as early as 2023, warning that it may not be able to fulfil its mission to make elections accessible to all Quebecers as a result of the law.

Mitchell hopes the next government will amend the law to allow the elections authority to send all documents in both official languages following Lussier’s ruling.

“My hope is that the politicians will see the wisdom of this and do the right thing,” he said.

Ludvig said her group wrote to both the Chief Electoral Officer and the Quebec minister responsible for the French language, urging them to modify the law.

“We would have preferred to see all election information documents provided directly in both French and English,” said Ludvig.

“This case demonstrates why the practical impact of language policies matters,” she added. “Quebec can protect and promote French while respecting the rights of English-speaking Quebecers … Those objectives are not in conflict.”

The commissioner of the French language said in an email that it does not have the authority to amend the Charter of the French language, but stressed that government practices must “reflect the principles underlying the Charter.”

A spokesperson for the office of Jean-François Roberge, minister of the French language, said the government acknowledges the court decision.

“It should be noted that the decision on the merits is still pending in this case. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the French language,” they said.

Quebec voters go to the polls on Oct. 5.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2026.