Elections Canada to investigate voting barriers in Nunavik
MONTREAL — Elections Canada says it will investigate 'shortcomings' that prevented some people in Nunavik from casting their vote in Monday's federal election.
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In a statement Wednesday, chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault apologized to residents of the northern region of Quebec, which is the homeland of Inuit in the province.
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'I deeply regret that some electors in Nunavik were not able to cast their vote,' he said. 'Over the last three years, Elections Canada has engaged with Indigenous communities across the country and made it a priority to remove barriers and improve voting services for Indigenous electors. Nevertheless, the shortcomings of our services in Nunavik during the general election underscore the importance of the work that remains.'
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Perrault said the agency will 'review the circumstances that led to this situation,' and will publish its findings.
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Mandy Gull-Masty, the newly elected Liberal MP for the riding of Abitibi–Baie–James–Nunavik–Eeyou, said she's hearing 'a lot of disappointment and a lot of outrage' from her constituents.
She pointed to the fact that voter turnout tends to be lower in Indigenous communities. 'Maybe we need to ask ourselves, 'Why is that?'' she said. 'Is it because they're not participating or they're not receiving the service to participate?'
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Gull-Masty said her understanding is that Elections Canada officials were present in Nunavik communities during the advance polling days over the Easter long weekend, trying to recruit community members to run voting stations on election day. But she said many people were out on the land over the holiday weekend.
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As a result, she said, several communities were served by teams that flew in to oversee the vote on April 28. Weather conditions then forced them to fly out early, she said, meaning some polling stations closed unexpectedly as early as 2:30 p.m.
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Gull-Masty said Elections Canada should start recruiting local poll workers as soon as an election is called. She also said the agency needs to employ more Indigenous language speakers.
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Still, she said people contacted her on election day to say they had planned to vote for her but had been unable to cast their ballots. 'I was very stressed out because it's election day, but I was more stressed out knowing that so many of my supporters were not offered the opportunity to vote for me,' she said.
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On Tuesday, Makivvik, the organization representing Quebec Inuit, said it was 'deeply disappointed' by how the vote was handled in Nunavik, and called on Elections Canada to investigate.
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