{"id":33051,"date":"2019-08-23T03:55:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T10:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=33051"},"modified":"2019-08-22T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T22:55:09","slug":"election-date-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/08\/23\/election-date-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Election date remains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservative candidate Chani Aryeh-Bain, left, and activist Ira Walfish at Federal Court in Toronto on July 16. (photo by Ron Csillag\/CJN)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, Elections Canada announced that it will not recommend that the date of the next federal election be changed, despite pressure to do so because it clashes with the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret.<\/p>\n

Moving the date \u201cis not in the public interest,\u201d Chief Electoral Officer St\u00e9phane Perrault said in a statement on July 29. Only a few days earlier, the Federal Court of Canada ordered Perrault to reconsider his earlier refusal to move the date of the election \u2013 Oct. 21 \u2013 after it heard from observant Jews who pointed out that they cannot drive, campaign or vote on a holy day.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Chani Aryeh-Bain, the Conservative candidate in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, and Ira Walfish, an activist and voter who lives in the York Centre riding, had argued before the court that Perrault\u2019s refusal to move the date to Oct. 28 was unreasonable and that they, along with 75,000 other Orthodox Jews in Canada, faced discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court gave Perrault a deadline of Aug. 1 to strike a balance between election laws and the rights of Orthodox Jews to vote and campaign. He was not empowered to move the date himself, but could recommend that cabinet do so.<\/p>\n

However, \u201cafter having carefully considered the impact of holding the election on Oct. 21 on the ability of observant Jews to participate in the electoral process, and having balanced that with my mandate to ensure accessible voting opportunities for all Canadians, I conclude that it would not be advisable to change the date of the election at this late stage,\u201d Perrault stated. It was \u201cnot a decision that I make lightly, but with a view to providing the broadest possible range of accessible voting services to the population at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a written statement to the CJN<\/em>, Aryeh-Bain, who had argued that, as an observant candidate she was prevented from getting out the vote on election day, said she was \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d with Perrault\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not believe he balanced the democratic and religious rights of Jewish voters and candidates,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has 85 days to prepare for this election \u2013 almost triple the amount of time than he has to prepare for a snap election. Why Perrault has dug his heels in is mystifying to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perrault acknowledged that, in the case of Aryeh-Bain, the effect of not moving the election date \u201cis very significant.\u201d He conceded that \u201cno arrangement can be made that would truly allow her to meet her religious obligations and compete on equal terms with non-observant candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a press conference at B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s offices on the day of the decision, Walfish said, \u201cWe are obviously very disappointed. We do not agree that the [chief electoral officer] balanced the relevant interests in his further decision to not move the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walfish said that Orthodox Jewish-Canadians \u201cwill not participate in this election on an equal footing with other Canadians, not by design or choice, but because their conscience prevents them from doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aryeh-Bain and David Tordjman, an observant Conservative candidate in Montreal, \u201care both seriously disadvantaged with an election on Oct. 21,\u201d said Walfish.<\/p>\n

In an 11-page statement, Perrault referenced a detailed \u201caction plan for observant Jewish community voting,\u201d which was launched in April. The statement noted that the Orthodox Jewish population is primarily located in urban areas in 36 of the 338 federal ridings. It said that those ridings range from one to 13.4% Jewish, according to the 2016 census, \u201cwhich makes it possible to design local solutions \u2026 to ensure that Elections Canada\u2019s services are targeted and responsive to local needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perrault took note of the argument presented in court that the four days of advance polls, from Oct. 12-15, reduce the ability of religiously observant Jews to cast ballots because they coincide with Shabbat and Sukkot. However, Perrault pointed out that there are many days during the election period in which observant Jews can vote, including by mail-in ballot, at an Elections Canada kiosk, or at one of roughly 115 post-secondary campuses from Oct. 5-9.<\/p>\n

Moving the election date \u201cwill not remove all of the barriers that Jewish electors face in voting this election cycle,\u201d Perrault stated. And if the date were moved, \u201cthe new dates for the advanced polls will also overlap with Jewish holidays,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no such thing as a perfect election day, especially in a country as diverse as Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Mostyn, B\u2019nai Brith\u2019s chief executive officer, said Perrault\u2019s decision was \u201cjust as wrong\u201d as his initial refusal to move the date. He said Perrault\u2019s admission that observant candidates cannot compete equally with non-observant ones is \u201ca red line\u201d for B\u2019nai Brith. But Elections Canada has \u201crun out the clock\u201d because of the Aug. 1 deadline for setting an election date, he noted.<\/p>\n

Mostyn called on \u201cevery Canadian Jew who is capable of doing so [to] cast a ballot via advanced polls or special ballots\u201d and on Jewish voters to ask candidates whether they support changes to elections laws, to ensure that voting does not fall on a Jewish holiday again.<\/p>\n

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), on the other hand, said it \u201crespects\u201d Perrault\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile mindful of the inconvenience that some will experience and the clear disadvantages faced by a religiously observant candidate, we trust that those challenges can and will be mitigated by the measures put into place by Elections Canada,\u201d said CIJA chief executive officer Shimon Koffler Fogel in a statement.<\/p>\n

CIJA said it, too, will focus on changing election dates, which have been fixed since 2007, so they no longer clash with Jewish holidays.<\/p>\n

Perrault said he is \u201ccommitted to continuing to work with the Jewish community to maximize voting options within the existing calendar in ways that are convenient and consistent with their religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservative candidate Chani Aryeh-Bain, left, and activist Ira Walfish at Federal Court in Toronto on July 16. (photo by Ron Csillag\/CJN) Last month, Elections Canada announced that it will not recommend that the date of the next federal election be changed, despite pressure to do so because it clashes with the Jewish holiday of Shemini […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9221,4304,3249,9222,218,3597,7086],"class_list":["post-33051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-chani-aryeh-bain","tag-democracy","tag-elections","tag-ira-walfish","tag-judaism","tag-politics","tag-voting"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}