Quebec students are being rejected as voters

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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Apparently the concern is the interpretation of domicile. Some students who have lived in Quebec for years are being turned away.

Students rejected as voters don’t meet ‘domicile’ demands

One 'english' student recorded his interaction with the elections commission officials:
Montreal Student Records Himself Being Denied The Right To Vote In St. Henri | MTL Blog

This comes as PQ candidates suggest the election will be stolen by people from Ontario:
PQ worried election will be 'stolen by people from Ontario' | CTV News
 

BornRuff

Time Out
Nov 17, 2013
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Hopefully this gets taken up in the courts and someone gets their *** handed to them.

I can't imagine that any court would agree that it is reasonable to take away the right to vote from someone who has all required documentation solely because some low level bureaucrat with no legal training says they have "doubt". It simply isn't strong enough grounds to take away such a fundamental right, and open to obvious abuse.

In this case it is obviously being abused to prevent anglophones from voting. I have a friend who is not even a student, but a young person who lives and works in Montreal. When she tried to register to vote she was turned down because the person simply thought she was a student and would not hear otherwise.

A system where bureaucrats can literally make up new criteria for being worthy of voting and force you to disprove things that they simply assume about you based on your age and accent is a disgrace to democracy.
 

s_lone

Council Member
Feb 16, 2005
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Montreal
While I believe everything should be done to make sure everyone who has the right to vote can, I also think there should be clearer regulation concerning citizens that come from other provinces. The problem here is that there is too much of an interpretation zone and that opens the door to bitterness and resentment. The PQ is desperate right now and will try every trick up its sleeve to keep power. Blaming anglos is their specialty.

In my book, you should only be allowed to vote in one province at a time. If for example a student from Ontario studying in Quebec is presently an elligible voter in Ontario, I don't believe he or she should have the right to vote in Quebec. At some point you have to choose where your nest is.
 

BornRuff

Time Out
Nov 17, 2013
3,175
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36
While I believe everything should be done to make sure everyone who has the right to vote can, I also think there should be clearer regulation concerning citizens that come from other provinces. The problem here is that there is too much of an interpretation zone and that opens the door to bitterness and resentment. The PQ is desperate right now and will try every trick up its sleeve to keep power. Blaming anglos is their specialty.

In my book, you should only be allowed to vote in one province at a time. If for example a student from Ontario studying in Quebec is presently an elligible voter in Ontario, I don't believe he or she should have the right to vote in Quebec. At some point you have to choose where your nest is.

The problem with how things are being done now is that the criteria are a moving target that can be used to deny anyone the right to vote.

The onus is on the individual to prove that they are eligible to vote, yet there is no concrete way to actually do that.

It comes down to a question of what is more important. Is it more important to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a ballot on election day, or that no residents that have lived there for over 6 months but that may not technically qualify as being "domiciled" cast a vote. I think that the right to vote is too important to be sacrificed over enforcing a technicality.

At very worst, people should still be able to cast a ballot, and if they have doubt, they can be sent for judicial review.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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kelowna bc
What this does suggest to me is the PQ has been doing their own polling and the
numbers are not good or they wouldn't be raising the issue at all. Quebec has had
enough of the silly game of separation they young families there like here want the
same things. Jobs, responsible government, education for their kids and so on.
A few people pine for this imaginary country in the midst of Canada with special
privileges. There is one other problem the northern lands that went to Quebec at
the turn of the last century came with an agreement with the norther indigenous
peoples that Canada would act if those people wished to remain Canadian.
I believe that deal came about around 1912 if I remember my history right, a course
in history was a long time ago. I believe less than forty percent want to separate
and all this fuss is to create a them against us mentality and the PQ stands to lose
this election