MONTREAL — Sometimes, it is revealing what isn't covered by the media.
Quebecs chief electoral officer began shredding the 1995 sovereignty referendum ballots Tuesday, ensuring that we will never know the truth behind allegations of separatist vote-rigging.
In the aftermath of the 1995 vote, which ended 50.6% to 49.4% for the No side, it emerged that some heavily federalist ridings had experienced unusually high rates of spoiled ballots. In Chomedey, for example, 12% of ballots were rejected, more than six times the provincial rate.
Scrutineers appointed by the governing Parti Québécois had apparently been instructed to reject as many No votes as possible. One No representative told The Gazette at the time that No votes were being rejected "for the most ridiculous little reasons.... You make a check mark and it looks more like a V and it was rejected. You made an X and one line trailed off so it wasnt as long as the other and it was rejected. With the race so tight, it is conceivable that enough rejected ballots could have tipped the balance.
Prosecutions of two scrutineers ended in acquittals and charges were dropped against 29 others. Michael Bergman, a Montreal lawyer, went to court to preserve the ballots so a recount could be conducted, but his bid failed in April, and Quebec Superior Court cleared the way for the destruction of the ballots.
The Gazette has a front-page photo today of ballots headed for the shredder, and Radio-Canada had an item deep into its newscast Tuesday evening. But the major French-language newspapers are silent.
The highly debatable notion that the No side bought its victory with a giant rally in Montreal has entered popular folklore in Quebec — but nobody, it seems, wants to be reminded of Yes-side skullduggery. Norman Webster, a former editor-in-chief of The Gazette, has called the incident "a fraud that could have cost us our country." Now, it is not only the ballots that are being shredded, but any hope of getting to the bottom of the fraud.
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