‘unreasonable’ To Cancel Election Won By Single Vote, Lawyer For Liberal Mp Says

The lawyer for a Quebec Liberal MP who won her riding successful nan April national predetermination by a azygous ballot based on connected Tuesday it would beryllium unfair to different voters to cancel nan consequence complete 1 uncounted ballot.

Marc-Étienne Vien, lawyer for MP Tatiana Auguste, told a proceeding successful St-Jérôme, Que., that ordering a caller predetermination would beryllium “unreasonable” and would efficaciously disenfranchise nan tens of thousands of group who formed ballots successful nan Terrebonne riding, northbound of Montreal.

“To cancel nan predetermination is to contradict nan correct to ballot that was expressed by these 61,115 people,” Vien said successful Superior Court.

If a caller ballot were held, he said, immoderate of nan group who formed ballots successful April whitethorn person since died aliases would beryllium different incapable to ballot successful a caller byelection.

The Quebec Superior Court agreed to perceive nan lawsuit aft erstwhile Bloc Québécois campaigner Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné challenged nan predetermination results successful nan riding. She launched nan situation aft a Bloc elector revealed that her typical ballot was returned to her — and not counted — because of an correction successful nan reside connected nan letter cover provided by Elections Canada.

Auguste initially won nan riding, but it flipped to Sinclair-Desgagné aft nan votes went done a validation process. A judicial recount completed connected May 10, however, concluded nan Liberals had won nan riding by 1 vote.

Sworn statements revenge successful nan lawsuit show that an predetermination worker discovered he had mistakenly printed his ain postal codification connected respective typical ballots astir 3 weeks earlier nan predetermination day.

Vien told nan tribunal that location are well-known risks to voting by mail, and that by law, it’s not Elections Canada’s work to guarantee mail-in ballots get astatine polling stations. Vien described nan correction arsenic “banal,” and said quality correction tin hap to anyone and consequence successful a fewer votes not being counted for a assortment of reasons.

“These are things that happen,” he said. “To let a contestation of elections connected this ground doesn’t look appropriate.”

He besides said it’s not a fixed that nan ballot successful mobility affected nan result of nan election.

He said 3 ballots marked for nan Bloc Québécois were recovered successful garbage cans astatine nan polling station, and that they were included successful nan last ballot tally contempt not being placed successful nan ballot container by nan voter. He suggested those votes could beryllium discounted because their authenticity could not beryllium confirmed — meaning Auguste’s separator of triumph should person been 4 votes and not one.

Sinclair-Desgagné’s lawyer, Stéphane Chatigny, said nan one-vote determination corresponded to a separator of triumph of 0.000016.

“I taxable that this is nan illustration of nan grade of certainty we person successful nan personality of nan victor of nan predetermination successful Terrebonne,” he said.

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Denying an eligible elector nan correct to ballot constitutes an irregularity that affected nan result of nan election, he said, pushing backmost against nan proposal that nan correction was banal.

A lawyer for Elections Canada told nan proceeding that he would not return a position connected Sinclair-Desgagné’s challenge. He said nan statement acknowledged that an correction had taken spot during nan election. Daniel Baum referred to a 2012 Supreme Court of Canada determination that group a precocious barroom for annulling elections based connected administrative errors.

The decision, he said, recovered nan correct to ballot to beryllium of utmost importance, but it besides concluded that elections successful Canada are “not designed to execute perfection.”

“It’s a big, analyzable machine, and errors are inevitable,” Baum said.

This study by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2025.

This is simply a corrected story. A erstwhile type gave nan incorrect first sanction for lawyer Daniel Baum.