13 November 2019

The chief returning officer told a legislative committee that Bill 40 flies in the face of fundamental democratic and electoral principles.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/abolishing-school-boards-is-undemocratic-quebec-voting-chief-says?fbclid=IwAR0VWpAb1j4e-K7uF7DSAr1XDB1Ik40W7nC55THAWCcmKCyTNNVffVJOopE
A Legault government law that would abolish school boards and the elections that form them is undemocratic, the agency responsible for overseeing elections in Quebec told a legislative committee on Tuesday.

Pierre Reid, who is Quebec’s chief returning officer and who submitted the Directeur général des élections (DGE) brief to the committee, told the panel that Bill 40 flies in the face of fundamental democratic and electoral principles in the way it determines the composition of service centre boards and the criteria required to join them.

“The legislation on school elections should be maintained, be it for the anglophone milieu as well as for the francophone milieu. The (existing) legislation permits the assurance of integrity and fairness in the electoral process,” Reid said. “The exercise of a healthy democracy should be supported by clear rules and we believe that the (current) legislation offers these guarantees.”

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