Calls for investigation after some in Nunavik left out of vote due to polling station issues

Tiivi Tulaugak was looking forward to voting in his first election in Ivujivik, Nunavik's northernmost community located in Quebec. But the 18-year-old's excitement quickly turned into frustration on Monday afternoon when he found out he was among the residents who wouldn't be able to cast a ballot.

CBC News has heard from residents in five Nunavik communities who reported issues at polling stations, including some that closed early — or didn't open at all.

"In my opinion, it's illegal," said Tulaugak, who called the situation "unacceptable." "They should plan and organize before the election."

Now, the Makivvik Corporation, the organization representing Inuit in Nunavik, is calling on Elections Canada to investigate. It says it learned polling hours were inconsistent and some communities couldn't vote altogether.

"This is unacceptable in 2025. In many cases, Nunavimmiut were effectively denied their right to participate in this election," read a statement.

Makivvik is demanding Elections Canada take immediate steps to ensure that every Inuk in Nunavik has equal access to voting in future elections.

In a statement on Monday, Elections Canada said weather issues were affecting flights for workers but did not confirm how many villages were affected, or whether polling booths did close down.

"In several cases, it was not possible to recruit local teams. In other cases, harsh weather conditions have prevented access to communities," read the statement on Monday.

On Tuesday, Elections Canada told CBC it was still gathering more information.

Mandy Gull-Masty, former grand chief of the Cree Nation Government in Quebec, won the seat in the region, flipping the Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou riding Liberal by just a couple thousand votes over the Bloc.

Julius Grey, a constitutional and human rights lawyer in Montreal, says the right to vote is fundamental, and the Elections Act is subject to the Charter.

"Accessibility is one part of the right to vote, so a court could intervene on it," said Grey. "Now whether what could be done, I don't know."

He says recourse for individuals affected by this could manifest as a declaration for future safeguards or a symbolic monetary compensation for breach of a Charter right, for example.

But he says being excluded from voting can happen — whether that be due to a mistake, a polling station closing early or a voter not being able to enter the voting area, for example.

Now, to go as far as overturning or annulling the results of a riding, Grey says that would require demonstrating a real possibility that the outcome could have been different.

"If a riding was won by 30 votes and it appears that 2,000 people were deprived of the vote, then the solution would be to annul the vote in that area and hold a byelection," he said.

"But that is not so just because a few people didn't vote. Because you can imagine how difficult it would be to have claims after every election."

Another possibility is a declaratory relief — a kind of legal remedy to declare that "those communities should be served and that an error was made in not serving them," said Grey.

Veldon Coburn, associate professor and faculty chair of Indigenous Relations Initiative at McGill University, says there's an opportunity for a post-mortem and to use this riding as a type of case study to prevent similar situations in the next election.

"Indigenous peoples have a long history of standing up for their rights," said Coburn, who is Anishinaabe from Pikwàkanagàn.

"Fighting for the right to participate in electoral politics has been something that's been dear to them. So Elections Canada may have awakened a bit of a sleeping giant here."

Due to the riding's unique makeup and a significant Indigenous population, he says residents may be feeling "rightly aggrieved and wronged."

Part of the problem, he says, stems from more than a century of political disenfranchisement faced by Indigenous people.

"There's a number of barriers for all sorts of matters of participating in politics and informal electoral politics. So it would be disheartening … in this era of reconciliation," said Coburn.

"I'm kind of a little bit bewildered that this could happen."

Coburn says Elections Canada should be able to anticipate some of these issues — especially considering the potential harms to Indigenous voters.

"It may leave a bad taste in their mouth," he said.

"It would be incumbent upon Elections Canada officials to mend the relationship where there's been a significant harm."