Bloc Québécois MPs are demanding a full accounting from Elections Canada after polling stations unexpectedly closed during the April 28 election, leaving some voters in northern Québec unable to cast ballots. Blacklock's Reporter says the agency has acknowledged the irregularities but has yet to provide full details or the results of any investigation.“We are demanding transparency from Elections Canada,” said Bloc MP Sébastien Lemire (Abitibi–Témiscamingue, Que.). “It should be accountable to voters.”.Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault confirmed on April 30 that polling stations in Abitibi–Baie James–Nunavik–Eeyou failed to open without explanation. “I deeply regret some electors in Nunavik were not able to cast their vote,” said Perrault. “To them I apologize.”Lemire said Elections Canada still has not answered basic questions. “How many polling stations were unable to open? Where did this occur, and for how long? How many citizens were blocked from voting?” he asked. “This is a serious barrier. It is nothing less than a denial of democracy to voters who faced closed doors of their polling stations.”.Minister of indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty won the riding by 2,197 votes. Voter turnout there was well below the national average, recorded at just 47.6%.The Bloc has also filed a court challenge over mail-in ballot issues in Terrebonne, Que., where Elections Canada admitted it failed to process valid ballots. The Liberals won that seat by a single vote. In addition, the agency revealed that 822 mail-in ballots in 74 contests were improperly delivered to a returning office in Coquitlam, B.C. Elections Canada stated on May 7 that its review showed the outcome of those races would not be affected..Compounding concerns, the agency’s electronic results database went down for several hours on election night, along with its online poll location advisories. No cause for the outages has been disclosed.“The failures in Nunavik are a serious mistake,” said Lemire. “Elections Canada must tell us what solutions they intend to implement to prevent this from happening again. We demand answers to these unacceptable failures.”Despite the criticism, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North) defended the agency. “I have absolute 100% full confidence in Elections Canada,” he said. “I don’t think any one of us do a favour if we start attacking Elections Canada.”Currently, there is no parliamentary committee solely dedicated to election oversight. Critics have previously called for routine reviews. After a 2015 report revealed 112,000 illegal voters on the National Register of Electors, then-Sen. Linda Frum warned, “There is no supervisory body right now. Elections Canada investigates itself. They need outside scrutiny.”
