Lawyer for Bloc candidate who lost by one ballot urges court to annul vote

MONTREAL – The lawyer for a former Bloc Québécois MP who lost her riding by a single vote in the April federal election says allowing the result to stand would send a “disastrous message” to voters. 

A three-day hearing began Monday in St-Jérôme, Que., where Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné is challenging the outcome of the April 28 election in the riding of Terrebonne, north of Montreal. The Bloc incumbent lost the riding by one vote to Tatiana Auguste, now a Liberal MP. 

The legal action comes after a local woman, Emmanuelle Bossé, revealed that her special ballot was returned to her after the election because of an error in the address on the envelope provided by Elections Canada. She said she would have voted for the Bloc candidate, meaning the result would have been tied had her vote been counted. 

Sinclair-Desgagné’s lawyer, Stéphane Chatigny, argued Monday in Superior Court that Bossé’s Charter rights were violated because her ballot wasn’t counted. He says a new election must be ordered in the riding.

Chatigny said that upholding the election result would “send a disastrous message to voters that even Elections Canada… can make mistakes, but that there will be no consequences despite the decisive impact on the outcome of the election.”

“By refusing to cancel the election, the court would send the message that some votes count more than others,” he said. “Such an outcome would permanently undermine public confidence.”

Sworn statements filed in the case show that an election employee discovered he had mistakenly printed his own postal code on several special ballots about three weeks before the election day. He estimated that a minimum of 40 envelopes had gone out with the wrong postal code. 

The employee said he didn’t deem it necessary to inform the returning officer because they were routinely receiving returned ballots despite the error. His previous experience in the role suggested to him that the rate of return was on par with previous elections.

Chatigny said the error constitutes an irregularity that compromised the vote. He said other voters may also have been affected, because 16 other special ballots were not returned by the deadline.

During the hearing on Monday, Justice Éric Dufour asked several questions about whether the error truly undermined the integrity of the vote, referring to a 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision that set a high bar for annulling elections based on administrative errors. 

Chatigny said the error was “a serious mistake” that affected the outcome of the election. 

Lawyers for Auguste and Elections Canada are scheduled to appear on Tuesday. The Liberals currently hold 169 seats in the House of Commons, just shy of the 172 needed to form a majority. The Bloc Québécois holds 22 seats. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2025.