KINSELLA: Elections Canada picks Holy Week to hold advance polls

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What would Jesus do?

Well, if he ran Elections Canada, he probably wouldn’t do what Elections Canada is doing this year. Which is conduct advance polls on some of the holiest days of the year, for Christians and Jews alike.

For Christians, the holiest days of the year are Good Friday (when Christ was crucified and died) and Easter Sunday (when he rose from the dead). For Jews, the Sabbath is always holy, and the Ten Commandments require that it be a day of rest — while Passover is holy, too (and commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt).

Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Passover and the Sabbath: For Christians and Jews, those days are among the most holy, most hallowed days in the calendar year. And, as noted, the Ten Commandments — observed by Christians and Jews alike — decrees that the observant must always remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy. Per Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work.”

That’s a quote from God, which is a pretty authoritative source. But Stephane Perrault, who has been Canada’s chief electoral officer since 2018, is perhaps unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments. He, with the power bestowed on him by Parliament, decided to hold advance polls on April 18, 19, 20 and 21. Literally, Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Holy Week.

It’s not like Perrault had no choice. His own website says the following: “The Canada Elections Act currently grants the chief electoral officer the discretion to recommend to the government an alternate day for the general election if the CEO is of the opinion that the date is not suitable, including by reason of its being in conflict with a day of cultural or religious significance.”

There can’t be many days less “suitable” for advance polls than Passover, the Sabbath, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, can there? Election day is important, advance polls less so. Perrault was deciding when advance polls should take place — and he chose days that, for most observant Christians and Jews, are a violation of their faith.

Full disclosure and a confession: This writer is a church-going Catholic. I’m not a fanatic about it — I’m a big, big believer in the separation of church and state, for example — but I observe my religion’s important religious traditions, like Lent, which marks the 40 days Christ spent in the desert, fasting and praying. During Lent, we Christians are supposed to deny ourselves things. (This year, as before, I quit drinking alcohol, including Kilkenny, Harp’s and Guinness, which was deeply painful, but a requirement of my faith.)

So, I contacted Elections Canada to ask them why they selected Holy Week to hold advance polls. No one responded.

If they had, they might have offered up focus-grouped spin about how they had no choice, Prime Minister Mark Carney having decided April 28 was election day. Or, they might suggest that they consulted widely — although we don’t know with whom. Or, that other countries — like France and Spain — vote on Sundays. Or, that society is increasingly secular, and is less preoccupied with, you know, God.

Yeah, but no. In the past, Perrault has been required by the courts to reconsider the days he picks for voting. In 2019, for example, a Federal Court judge ordered Perrault to reconsider voting on a Jewish holiday called Shemini Atzeret, because observant Orthodox Jews are not permitted to work — or vote or campaign — on that day.

Voting on important religious holidays literally violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ protection of religious freedoms, in Section 2. Justice Ann Marie McDonald ruled that there was no evidence that Perrault had bothered to consider the obvious “Charter infringements” in that case. (The vote happened on Oct. 21 anyway, after Perrault issued a wordy “CEO reconsideration.”)

To our knowledge, no one has litigated the issue in this election. In 2011, however, when advance polls also landed in Holy Week, the NDP (surprise surprise) asked for a change. Elections Canada refused, saying its hands were tied, and that the law required it.

What would Jesus do? Well, we know what he’d do: He’d say pick some other dates. Simple.

Elections Canada, however, doesn’t give a good goddamn about that.