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A lawyer for Élections Québec said in a Montreal courtroom on Thursday that there may be time to send one piece of English-language voter information in the mail, as the electoral agency and the provincial government face court challenges over sending letters that are only in French.
But Henrick Lavoie also told a Quebec Superior Court judge that it was too late to send an English version of the voting guide and English notification cards to voters before the Oct. 5 vote.
“I respectfully submit that it is impossible, absolutely impossible,” he said in the Montreal courtroom.
However, he said voting reminder cards could still be sent in English if the court issues such an order by September 16. The list of candidates was finalized by 2pm on September 17 and the institute had planned to print reminder cards to be sent after the deadline.
He said additional cards printed in English would cost the province about $6 million.
Élections Québec was pressured to address the issue after Montreal lawyer Doug Mitchell took the matter to court, seeking an order that would force the provincial agency to submit voter information in French and English.
The agency said earlier this month that it would only provide documents in French.
Attorney Doug Mitchell told the court that not providing people with the information they need to vote could harm their ability to exercise their right to vote.
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“The end result, if no documents are submitted, people who want to vote will lose their right to vote because they do not have the ability to understand and act to advance their interests in exercising one of the most fundamental rights in the world,” he said.
Élections Québec said on September 1 that printed voter cards will only be available in French for the first time in its history, to comply with a new language law.
Provincial election authorities said they must follow a law passed in 2022 that makes French the sole language of communication for public institutions, but said the document will include a QR code for voters looking for information online in English.
Mitchell noted that Élections Québec requested an exception to the law to be allowed to submit information in both languages, but was denied.
He cited a letter written to the Quebec government by the province’s chief electoral officer stating that the validity of the election could be called into question if they were forced to apply the law to the letter.
“That the Quebec government would rather risk an annulment or annulment of the election (than) provide documents that (the electoral body) said were necessary for a fair election … the court should be troubled by that,” Mitchell said.
He said QR codes are not an adequate substitute because many people cannot access them, including some elderly people and people who don’t have cellphones or reliable internet.
Mitchell, acting on behalf of plaintiff Geoffrey Chambers, asked the judge to grant an emergency order requiring the electoral agency to provide copies of the province’s election guidelines in English, notices sent to voters and reminder cards.
Éric Cantin, a lawyer for the Quebec government, argued that the obligation to inform voters is not the same as the right to submit documents in English. Cantin noted that Élections Québec has several other ways to deliver information to voters, including through English-language advertising, media, phone lines and online.
“What we’re trying to create is a right to post, and not a right to get information because the information is there,” he said.
He said a ruling in Mitchell’s favor amounted to creating an “absolute obligation” to submit materials in both French and English. “And what else? What’s to stop it from continuing after that – and being delivered in multiple languages - if you start bringing that kind of thing forward?” he said.
Cantin also argued that it is up to the Quebec government to draft language laws and address existing problems.
That last assertion was met with resistance from High Court Judge Sylvain Lussier, who said that a government representing the majority cannot always be trusted to advocate for minority rights.
“When you say ‘trust legislators,’ I’m not sure,” he said.
Lussier also questioned Mitchell why, based on his logic, speakers of other languages should not also insist that voting information be sent to them in their first language.
Mitchell said the case hinges not only on whether a right was violated, but also on whether the restriction was justified. He said that’s not the case currently, especially since Élections Québec itself has argued for the importance of continuing to provide English-language documents.
Lussier noted Élections Québec’s deadline for producing reminder cards, but did not say when he would issue a decision.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2026.
© 2026 Canadian Press
