Montrealers contest the province's electoral map

Montrealers contest the province’s electoral map

Posted On: December 12, 2023

Quebec’s electoral map is being challenged in court by a group of citizens of the island of Montreal.

The lawsuit was brought against the Electoral Representation Commission (CRÉ) and was filed on Thursday morning by well-known lawyer Julius Gray, a press release said.

It is requested that the published voting card be declared invalid Official Gazette last March.

The citizens’ group is against this reorganization of certain electoral districts: it objects to the merger of Mont-Royal and Outremont as well as the “significant” changes to the boundaries of the neighboring Darcy-McGee electoral district, which includes the entire area of the towns of Côte-Saint-Luc and Hampstead we can read in the press release published on Thursday.

According to the citizens’ group founded last March, this map underestimates Montreal’s political clout and reduces the opportunity for ethnic and linguistic minorities to be heard.

It is said that in general, and this is not just a problem in Quebec but throughout the West, there is a tendency not to give enough weight to cities.

So, according to him, the new map does not respect the principle of equality of citizens and weakens the power of these voters.

Mr. Gray emphasizes that this particularly affects Hasidic Jewish voters, Quebecers from the Philippines, English speakers, but also Lebanese and Syrians.

“They are losing one of the counties that allowed them to express themselves. And there aren’t many,” he argues in a telephone interview.

The complaint also alleges that the Commission did not have the right to change the map after publishing its report, that it did not act fairly and that it did not respect the criteria of the Electoral Act.

The citizens’ committee is co-chaired by Marlene Jennings, a former Liberal MP, and Beryl Wajsman, the weekly newspaper’s editor-in-chief. The suburb.

The press release states that the committee is supported by the five local mayors of the municipalities affected by the changes, namely Russell Copeman (Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district) and Philippe Roy (City of Mont-Royal ). ), Mitchell Brownstein (City of Côte-St-Luc), William Steinberg (City of Hampstead) and Marie Cinq-Mars (Outremont District).

We add that these municipalities and districts have all accepted applications against the electoral map.

Application for an interim injunction possible

Mr. Gray believes it is possible that the application will be heard by a judge in the fall so that the constituencies can be redrawn before the next provincial election in October 2018.

But if there are pitfalls and the filing is delayed, there is always the option of seeking an injunction a few months before the election, Mr. Gray argued.

The recent revision of the map resulted in numerous protests. Most notable was the adherence to the Electoral Representation Commission’s recommendation to abolish from Québec Solidaire the constituency of Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques, of which Manon Massé is the provincial representative. Citizens led a campaign to prevent it from being included in a new downtown center called Ville-Marie.

Needing to eliminate a metropolitan constituency because the number of voters there is growing less quickly than elsewhere in Quebec, the CRÉ reverted to its original idea, opting instead for the merger of Mont-Royal and Outremont and the change by D “Arcy McGee.

The two constituencies affected by the merger are represented by ministers: Mont-Royal by the Minister of Natural Resources, Pierre Arcand, and Outremont by Hélène David, Minister of Higher Education.