McGill student rejected as voter in Quebec election despite living in province since 2009
Tristin Hopper | March 26, 2014
Kokulan Mahendiran, who has lived in Quebec since 2009, was told “I don’t believe you’re domiciled” by a polling official.
When Ontario-born McGill student Kokulan Mahendiran went to vote at a Montreal polling place on Monday, he brought a manila folder full of proof that he has lived in the city since 2009: Bank statements, a Quebec driver’s licence, proof of membership in a local riding association, and even recommendation letters from Liberal MP Marc Garneau.
That would be more than enough to vote in any other Canadian jurisdiction, but Mr. Mahendiran was deemed to not be Québécois enough.
“The [revision officer] basically said it was a question of what she believes, because at one point she said ‘I don’t believe you’re domiciled,’” he said.
With less than two weeks until Quebec’s April 7 election, an increasing number of Montreal students born out of province have been turned away at polling stations for failing to prove their “intent” to stay in Quebec for the long run.
Concordia University student Malory Beazley, 26, a Montreal resident since 2011, was turned away for failing to provide a Quebec driver’s license.
B.C.-born student Sean Beatty has lived in Montreal for six years and pays Quebec taxes, but appears to have had his eligibility scuttled when officials found out he was still using his B.C. health care card.
Using the name AnonMcGill, Mr. Beatty posted a secret recording of the exchange
“I have a doubt that you’re not a resident of Quebec; as soon as I have a doubt that you’re not a resident of Quebec, I cannot put you on the list,” an elections official can be heard telling the student in English. “You can give me [hydro] bills for the last 10 years, but it doesn’t prove to me that you’re a resident.”
In all other Canadian provincial and territorial elections, the only requirement to vote is Canadian citizenship and evidence that a voter has lived in the jurisdiction for between 40 days and 12 months.
Quebec’s Election Act subtly ups the ante by demanding that would-be voters be “domiciled” in the province.
“The simple fact of residing in a place does not establish domicile,” states an information page released by Elections Quebec. Instead, would-be voters must prove to elections staff their “intention” to keep Quebec as their permanent home.
On Monday, Mr. Mahendiran, 22, arrived at his Westmount-Saint-Louis polling place carrying his Quebec driver’s licence, Quebec bank statements and a raft of official mail sent to his Montreal address, including a letter from Governor-General David Johnston awarding him the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, as well as direct correspondence with his MNA and MP.
“Kokulan has made many noteworthy contributions to our community where he has shown his leadership, passion and reliability,” wrote Westmount-Ville Marie MP Marc Garneau in an April recommendation letter.
And, to establish his age and Canadian citizenship, Mr. Mahendiran brought along his birth certificate.
“She [the revision officer] pointed and said ‘all your documents are from Ontario, we can’t take that,’” said Mr. Mahendiran. “I had one document from Ontario.”
“And then at another point she said, ‘You have to renounce all your ties to Ontario to vote here’ … I answered that I was born in Ontario and can’t change that.”
Kokulan Mahendiran with Quebec Liberal MP Marc Garneau at a February 2013 event. Mahendiran “has shown his leadership, passion and reliability,” Garneau wrote in an April recommendation letter.
He was ultimately sent away carrying a Quebec voter’s manual with the words “domicile” and “Canadian citizen” underlined sharply in pen — despite his birth certificate, the revision officer had apparently also doubted Mr. Mahendiran’s Canadian citizenship.
A second attempt on Tuesday fared no better. In an official rejection form, election officials wrote that Mr. Mahendiran was “missing documents to establish domicile,” citing his failure to provide a Quebec health card.
“I asked her ‘if I bring a Quebec health card tomorrow, would I be able to register?’ She said ‘I can’t guarantee that, because I don’t believe you’re domiciled.’”
In a Saturday statement intended to clear up any “misconception” over the domicile policy Quebec chief electoral officer Jacques Drouin wrote that “the domicile is … the place with which a person’s important actions or ‘states’ of civic life are associated.”
No set standards exist to determine domicile, but Mr. Drouin wrote that elections officials have “the power to inquire and obtain any information it considers relevant” to gauge eligibility.
She said, ‘You have to renounce all your ties to Ontario to vote here’ … I answered that I was born [there] and can’t change that
This information might include a Quebec driver’s licence or a Quebec health card, but officials can also deny eligibility on factors as vague as a person’s “actions” or “behaviours.”
National Post, with files from Postmedia News
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
Kokulan Mahendiran made several errors. First an error in judgment in deciding to be born in Ontario, Second he should have told the official that he was going to renounce having been born in Ontario and that he wished he would have been born in Quebec.
Then we have the word "domicile", perhaps it spelt incorrectly, perhaps it should have been dumbocile or damnedocile.
It's blatantly obvious that if they can't win by the rules, they are going to change the rules.
Now it appears, that you have to have been born in Quebec in order to be able to vote in Quebec.
Abuse of power frequently relies upon subterfuges, and using the first thing or the usual thing that pops into their heads in order to justify failing to do their duty.
Quebec pales to Ontario when it comes to doing indirectly what is prohibited directly.
Take the Notoriously Corrupt Crown Attorneys of Ontario who enforce Ontario's "Male Sharia Law" that means they prosecute those who are politically correct even when they know they are innocent and fail to prosecute those they know are real criminals.
On March 6, 2014, Ottawa Crown Attorney Vikii Blair committed one of the worst offences against the administration of justice called "Obstruct Justice".
She "stayed" charges against a local lawyer who is notorious for Perjury on Affidavits of Service which is the key document that must be sworn and filed with a court in order to have a hearing heard. Judges rely upon Affidavits of Service in order to confirm that parties have been served. It relies upon honesty under criminal penalty of perjury that the document is in fact true.
In this case the lawyer with 30 plus years experience, who is notorious for swearing and filing affidavits of service when the court documents were not served, swore and filed an Affidavit of service before a court clerk when he had not served the documents upon a well known Ottawa law firm who promptly swore affidavits that they had not been served at the time the lawyer swore and filed his affidavit of service.
An Information under S.504 of the Criminal Code was filed with the court alleging the offence and Prior to the first exparte en camera hearing to review the evidence and hear the witnesses, to see if the charge was made out, Ottawa Crown Attorney Vikii Bair "Stayed the information" , that is forever preventing any witnesses from giving evidence.
In Staying the charges she acknowledged that the evidence showed the accused lawyer committed the offence but "he did not intend to mislead the court".
Our Court System relies upon the honesty and integrity of lawyers, of Crown Attorneys, police offices and Child Protection workers. Ottawa Ontario is notorious for perjury, fabrication of evidence and obstruction of justice by Crown Attorneys, lawyers and worst of all Child Protection Workers.
Ottawa Crown Attorney Vikii Bair has been famous for a very long time for the worst possible reasons, for having a pathological hatred of men, of pressing charges against men, dropping charges against the most violent of women, to protect corrupt Police Officers like Det. Peter Van Der Zander , lawyers like Marguerite Isobel Lewis of the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa and worst of all, child protection workers like Phillip Hiltz-Laforge who fabricate evidence to illegally and unnecessarily keep children in kiddy jails that make them $266,000 per child per year.
In Ontario, if you a lawyer with 30 years experience, you can commit perjury and or obstruct justice with impunity as long as you are on the right side of the political fence according to Ontario's most corrupt Crown Attorney Vikii Bair.
That's a pretty good reason to become "domiciled" in Quebec.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com