The Gazette
Thousands of Quebecers who had their referendum votes stolen on the night of Oct. 30, 1995, are still waiting for justice. They are unlikely to get it from the courts, judging by this week's disappointing verdict from Quebec Superior Court.
Ruling on an appeal by Quebec's chief electoral officer, Judge Ginette Piche has upheld the acquittal of two deputy returning officers charged with voter fraud in Chomedey riding. Janie Fortin rejected 37.5 per cent of the ballots she counted in the federalist riding on referendum night while Mathieu Lefebvre rejected 53 per cent. Yet, according to Judge Piche, the two were guilty only of "errors in judgment" and "there was no evidence they were dishonest."
The court's insistence on proving inten- tion to defraud is puzzling. After all, these are not criminal offences we are talking about. They are summary offences that carry a minimum penalty of $100, not much different from a speeding infraction.
If this wasn't fraud, it was a complete distortion of the voting results. As chief electoral officer Francois Casgrain stated in his appeal of the case: "Depriving voters of their vote is objectively dishonest, no matter what the motive." When a single returning officer can reject more than half the ballots he counts without justification and without suffering any legal consequences, then clearly Quebec's elections and referendums are open for hijacking.
Judge Piche's decision sets a disturbing precedent for 29 other cases of voter fraud still pending from the 1995 referendum. If the courts insist that the intention to defraud must be proved, it will be difficult to convict anyone for the widespread vote tampering that occurred in federalist ridings.
The referendum-ballot scandal remains one of the most shameful episodes in Quebec history. During the counting supervised by appointees of the Parti Quebecois government, 86,501 ballots were ruled invalid - a total that exceeded the No side's margin of victory of 54,288. In ridings across the province, returning officers like Ms. Fortin and Mr. Lefevbre attended training sessions sponsored by the Yes committee where they were given incorrect instructions on how to reject ballots. The whole process was stained by political interference.
If throwing away No ballots is not against the law, then it's time to change the law. Mr. Casgrain has made two useful recommendations to the PQ government, which is currently reviewing its election and referendum acts. One is to change the ballot, so that voters fill in a small dot rather than mark a circle. The other is that training of deputy returning officers be taken away from political parties and be done only by the chief electoral office.
Quebec should go even farther. As in other provinces, deputy returning officers should be named by the chief returning officer, not by the party in power. And the ballot-tampering provisions of the electoral act should be amended so that the term "fraudulent" is removed. Returning officers should be required to justify in writing why they reject ballots and they should be prosecuted for any violations of the rules.
A single vote is a precious thing. The entire electoral system will collapse unless voters have confidence that their ballots are counted fairly.