Recently, an application was filed in Federal Court to prevent the 2019 federal election from being held on a religious holiday when observant Jews cannot vote. Far from being a singularly Jewish issue, the obstinacy of the Chief Electoral Officer should concern Canadians at large.

First, it is important to dispel the myth that this is a partisan effort. While both of the individual applicants are Conservatives, the sense of alarm that observant Jews will be effectively disenfranchised in October is widespread within the community. Michael Levitt, the incumbent Liberal MP for York Centre, wrote to Elections Canada CEO Stéphane Perreault in April to ask for the exact same remedy. In fact, on this issue, it is Elections Canada that is defying a multi-partisan consensus that something should be done.

The measures proposed so far by Elections Canada are wholly inadequate. The agency announced recently – seemingly in response to the application – that voting hours for advanced polls would be expanded from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

However, this is of little comfort for observant Jews, since in addition to Oct. 21, Election Day, falling on a Jewish holiday, two of the four advanced voting days fall on a Jewish holiday or on the Sabbath, when writing – and hence voting – are strictly forbidden. The two remaining days are essentially half-days for observant Jews, as Jewish holidays always begin during the preceding evening or late afternoon, preventing voting at those times as well.

What Elections Canada could and should have done – and what we at B’nai Brith asked for months ago – was to add an extra advanced polling day that would be fully accessible for members of the observant Jewish community. Elections Canada has never explained why it did not pursue this least-disruptive course of action.

And all of this is to say nothing about the plight of observant Jewish election volunteers and candidates, including Chani Aryeh-Bain, one of the two applicants. Marco Mendicino, the incumbent candidate running for re-election in the same riding as Aryeh-Bain, is of the opinion that an extra advanced polling day should be fully accessible for members of the observant Jewish community.

As any election veteran knows, Election Day itself – or “E-Day,” as they call it in the business – is critical for any candidate’s chances. A compelled inability to campaign on E-Day is tantamount to an electoral death sentence in a close local race.

Of course, though Elections Canada admits that the current situation is “unfortunate,” they now shrug their shoulders and say it’s too late for anything to be done.

This is hogwash, for two reasons.

First, Elections Canada was aware of this problem long before the application and had ample opportunity to fix it on a more comfortable timeline. More importantly, let’s remember what happened with Toronto’s recent municipal election. On July 27, 2018 – fewer than three months before the polling date – Premier Doug Ford introduced legislation to slash almost half of the city’s wards and dramatically reshape the election. Still, and despite ongoing legal uncertainty, the city managed to hold a perfectly orderly election on Oct. 22.

It is absurd for Elections Canada to suggest, as it now does, that it cannot emulate Toronto’s adjustments on the fly last year – especially when all that is being requested here is a change of date, rather than a systemic change to the conduct of the election.

To make matters even clearer, Elections Canada has applicable precedent that it is refusing to follow. In 2007, Ontario’s provincial election was delayed due to a clash with the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the same one posing problems for this year’s federal vote. In doing so, Ontario’s Chief Electoral Officer relied on a section of the provincial Elections Act that permits Election Day to be rescheduled if it would coincide with “a day of cultural or religious significance.”

Almost unbelievably, Mr. Perreault, faced with the exact same situation and with an identical provision of the Canada Elections Act, is refusing to take the same step, despite knowing that tens of thousands of additional voters Canada-wide will be affected.

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All Canadians should be concerned because this could ultimately change the outcome of the federal election as a whole. When Quebec refused to follow Ontario’s lead on this issue for its provincial election last year, voter turnout in the most heavily Jewish riding plunged from 72 per cent to only 44 per cent.

The polls suggest that October’s election will be a nail-biter. In a tight national race, and especially in a minority situation, the make-up of our next government could hang on a handful of close ridings. If those ridings turn out to be those with large observant Jewish populations – such as Ontario’s York Centre or Quebec’s Outremont – many will be pointing the finger at Elections Canada for failing in its duty to uphold all Canadians’ constitutional right to vote.