District Court Judge James Wingham adjourned an application by Rosemary Higuara, the city’s chief elections officer, challenging 15 candidates who entered their names in English and another language that does not use Latin characters. According to the Vancouver Charter, nomination papers must include the nominated person’s full name and “the nominated person’s usual name, if the person’s full name is different from the name he ordinarily uses.” Some of the 15 applicants whose customary names were challenged were given non-English names by their parents at birth, while others submitted nomination papers with names in Chinese script they say were given to them as adults. “I have a close relationship with the Chinese community. I pretty much grew up in Chinatown. My father worked in Chinatown. He speaks Cantonese,” said NPA council candidate Melissa De Genova. She said she was given a Chinese name by members of the Chinese community and has used it on business cards and stationery over a period of several years. “It came from a community leader in Chinatown,” De Genova said. “It means wise flower and the flower is an orchid.” When the matter first came before Judge Wingham on Thursday, a city attorney told him that according to the city charter, the application had to be heard and ruled on by 4pm on Friday. Wingham balked at the deadline and initially adjourned the hearing until Friday morning to give the respondents time to consult with legal counsel. NPA board candidates Elaine Allan and Ken Charko, who both submitted names on their nomination papers in English followed by Chinese text, were represented in court on Friday by lawyer Bruce Hallsor, who immediately sought another adjournment until at least on 7 October because he needs more time to prepare his submissions. With early voting beginning Sept. 28, the city had planned to print ballots this weekend. Holshor described the situation as a “constitutional conundrum” and said his clients would likely invoke a charter challenge. After a short break, Wingham announced that the application would be postponed. “To proceed with this application today would be tantamount to denying natural justice to the respondents,” he said. As a result of Wingham’s decision to mark, all candidates will have their names on the ballot exactly as they appear on the nomination papers. “I consider this a win for sure,” Halsor said outside court. “Our customers will be identified by the names they are known by in the community, their common names. There were some doubts about it because of their nationality.” Some of the respondents were represented in court by Susanna Quail, who argued that there is a clear distinction between her clients, who submitted nomination papers under non-English birth names, and other respondents. “My clients, and possibly others, are being dragged into a protracted, ultimately unduly expensive, process because there is this other class of applicants,” she said, referring to respondents wishing to use non-English names that were not given to them. the birth. “Maybe those are their usual names, maybe not.” He went on to say that if the matter were adjourned and the ballots were printed without a ruling by Justice Wingham on the merits of each candidate’s reasoning for using a common name in non-Latin text, the “integrity of the ballots” would be called into question. . But Wingham was not swayed and chose to hold off until after the election. Honieh Barzegari, an Iranian-born Vision Vancouver board candidate, will have her name printed on the ballot in both English and Farsi. However, he questions that all respondents will be allowed to have non-English names on the ballot, even if that includes candidates who have only recently started using those names. He believes it will call into question the integrity of the entire election. “I say yes. Why? Even if a person’s name is not their usual name and it’s going to be printed on the ballot and that’s what the voters see, when the election is over, what does that mean to the public and the voters?” said Barzegari. “Was it a legitimate election? That’s my question.”
