Disruptions reported at some polling stations

OTTAWA — Elections Canada reported a handful of disruptions at polling stations across the

day, including poll workers not showing up, as millions of Canadians cast their ballots in the country’s first pandemic election.

While the majority of polling stations opened on time and without incident, Elections Canada spokeswoman Diane Benson says issues were reported with several sites in Ontario and Western Canada, resulting in some stations opening late or having to be relocated.

Benson said poll workers did not show up for two polls in the Ontario riding of Kenora, near the border with Manitoba. Standby workers from other parts of the region were shuffled, she said, with polls opened by mid-afternoon.

Two polling locations in First Nations in the Alberta riding of Grand Prairie-Mackenzie were also late opening due to staff being unable to get into locked buildings.

Elections Canada was also aware that a polling location in the B.C. community of Yekooche, in the riding of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, did not open on time.

Benson also reported special arrangements had been made, with the approval of local campaigns, for several polling places in the Toronto ridings of Eglinton-Lawrence and University-Rosedale to manage the flow of voters while respecting safety measures in place.

“We are aware of a disruption in voting services in several polling places in Davenport,” she added. “Voting has resumed.”

A polling station in the riding of Brantford-Brant, southwest of Toronto, was also moved following a protest organized by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council.

The council spoke out last week against putting a polling station on what it considers its traditional territory, calling it a treaty violation and encouraging members not to vote.

The local newspaper Turtle Island News reported that protesters blocked all three entrances to the polling station before a standoff broke out with Six Nation police. The polling station was moved off reserve following negotiations between the two sides.

The isolated disruptions came as Canada’s major party leaders joined the millions of residents who cast their ballots in the country’s first pandemic election, as Canadians from coast to coast went to the polls.

Elections Canada says almost 6.8 million people voted early, most of them at advance polls over a week ago, and the rest through special ballots cast by mail or at Elections Canada offices.