A Quebec civil court judge says Ãlections Québec’s plan to mail French-only voting information documents this year would infringe on the right to vote of English speakers in the province.
Judge Sylvain Lussier ordered Ãlections Québec 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.
“The status of French is not restricted by the permission to inform English-speaking voters in their own language,” Lussier wrote in his analysis.
The court was asked to grant a provisional interlocutory injunction 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.
In his decision, Lussier said he partially accepted the provisional interlocutory injunction, granting it for a period of 10 days.
Geoffrey Chambers is the plaintiff in the case. He’s the former president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, known today as the TALQ.
Judge orders Ãlections Québec to send voter reminder cards in French and English
Ãlections Québec mails out three different documents to voters ahead of provincial elections: an election guide, a notice of entry and a reminder card.Â
The court said ordering Ãlections Québec to produce and mail an English version of the first two documents at this stage was âunrealistic and extremely costly.â
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 mailing of the documents.
The reminder cards will include a list of candidates in the voterâs riding as well as details on where and when to vote. Quebecers head to the polls on Oct. 5.
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.”
He pointed to the recent federal election in Terrebonne, where a single miscounted vote nullified the results, to illustrate the importance of each vote.
“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.
“To ask the question is to answer it.”
Quebec won’t reverse course on French-only voter info mailout ahead of provincial election
In a statement to CBC, the Coalition Avenir Québec government said it will analyze the court’s decision.
“It is worth recalling that a ruling on the merits of the case is still pending,” wrote a spokesperson.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the French language.”
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Ãlections Québec, Julie St-Arnaud Drolet, told CBC the agency had pleaded to no avail with Quebec to allow it to send basic voting information in both French and English. Ãlections Québec argued there was a conflict between the law and its own obligation not to interfere with people’s right to vote.
The agency’s attempts at dialogue with the provincial government, which began as early as 2023, were outlined by the court.
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.
A few months later, the chief electoral officer wrote to the minister responsible for the French language, Jean-François Roberge, but that letter went unanswered.
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.”
Responding to the fallout around the announcement of French-only voting information documents, Premier Christine Fréchette said English-speaking voters could still access the information they needed online and that their rights were respected.
Ãlections Québec 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.
Lussier said the court was not convinced those alternatives were enough to allow all Anglophones in Quebec to access proper voting information.
On Wednesday, Drolet said Ãlections Québec does not comment on political decisions, adding that it will be able to produce the reminder cards as ordered by the court.
