Quebec elections agency received 160 complaints over French-only voter guides Elections Quebec got 160 complaints in five days after sending unilingual French voter guides for the Oct. 5 provincial election, with 27 identical complaints filed by a retired professor. A court order later forced bilingual reminder cards. Elections Quebec received 160 complaints over five days after announcing it would send unilingual French voter information guides ahead of the Oct. 5 provincial election, documents released through access to information legislation show. Twenty-seven of those complaints were identical to a template filed and shared on social media by Derek Heatherington, a retired college professor living in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. He acted after hearing the provincial elections agency was sending out unilingual French guides this year. This situation really spoke to me, because we are getting to the point here where we are talking really about voter suppression, Heatherington said.Complaints Aim to Challenge Language LegislationHe does not blame the election oversight body for the decision, acknowledging that it has to follow language laws. They do not have a whole lot of choices aside from trying to find some middle ground, he added. And it is really an unfortunate position for us to be in, for citizens to be in and for them to be in, he said. He hopes the flurry of complaints can help Elections Quebec push back against the language legislation.The agency announced on its website on Sept. 1 that it was not sending out any English-language guides due to legislation adopted in 2022 requiring provincial government institutions to issue public communications only in French. Instead of the usual bilingual documents, the agency suggested voters could scan a QR code on the guide to find the English information online.Heatherington is part of the board of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, an advocacy group that accuses the elections authority of creating barriers to democracy and violating constitutional rights ahead of the Oct. 5 provincial election. He said the complaints carry weight. Those are the processes that are going to be heard, a lot more than people going online and saying I think this is horrible, he said.Voters Highlight Barriers to Democratic ParticipationIn one complaint, a person who identified themselves as an English-speaking Quebecer noted how they were part of a minority forced to fight hard to have their rights respected. I am disappointed to learn today that my right to vote will be compromised, wrote the complainant. Another said the change made it more difficult for their son, who has autism and can only speak English, to participate in the elections.A third wrote: I am an Italian-Canadian Quebecer, born here, I have the right to English services. I demand the correspondence be bilingual. A Superior Court judge temporarily suspended provisions of the language legislation on Sept. 16, ordering the agency to send out bilingual reminder cards to voters in response to a separate legal challenge launched by a resident of Westmount, Que.Lawyers are also preparing to send a formal letter to Elections Quebec and the Attorney General about workers being asked to limit their use of English, and a lawyer has asked a judge to order Elections Quebec to mail out voter information in both French and English. An Elections Quebec poll worker told CTV News that they were instructed to speak English with voters only in certain situations ahead of voting in the election.Elections Quebec Cites Short Campaign Period for ConstraintsElections Quebec spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet said the campaign period was too short to send English mailouts to anglophones who qualify for English services and Indigenous people. Some voters feel really angry about it. For us, it is very difficult, because it is not up to us to decide, she said. She said that, as a non-partisan organization, Elections Quebec could not go against governmental legislation and run the risk of appearing to endorse or reject a party platform.Can we fault a democratic institution for respecting the laws? If an institution like ours did not respect Quebec laws, it seems to me that it would be then that, democratically, we would have a problem, she said. We of course are concerned about the voting turnout, but language legislation is a political matter, said St-Arnaud-Drolet. The agency internal documents also show that Elections Quebec analyzed the risks of sending French-only guides.Chief Electoral Officer Warned of Potential Election ChallengesAn evaluation dated on Jan. 1, 2025, lists lower turnout in groups that do not speak French, complaints, and loss of interest or trust towards democratic institutions as possible risks. Letters between Quebec chief electoral officer Jean-Francois Blanchet and the provincial government show that he requested an exemption from the language legislation, warning in April 2025 that the results of the election could be challenged due to French-only correspondence with voters.Elections Quebec had also asked the government to change French-language laws in 2023. Images showed people lining up to vote on the second day of advance voting ahead of the provincial elections in Montreal on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.