Opinion par Roger-Luc Chayer (Photo : City of Montreal)
The elections in Quebec are finally over, and municipalities can now begin or continue pursuing their objectives, led by new or renewed teams. Contrary to what one might think, not everything is going wrong everywhere, unlike what is happening in Montreal.
Montreal: A Victory Celebrated at Every Level
In Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada is celebrating a resounding victory as she takes over the central mayorship as well as that of the Ville-Marie borough. In the Village borough, Robert Beaudry, responsible for the disaster of the past eight years in the gay district, has been dismissed, while Luc Rabouin, defeated, has decided not to sit as leader of the opposition. The City of Montreal is thus experiencing a moment of profound change, both long awaited and more than necessary.
However, throughout the municipal election campaign, a third party and several of its activists engaged in deplorable behavior, in total contradiction with the basic rules of online civility. Until now, I had refrained from speaking publicly about it to avoid any accusation of electoral interference. But now, the day after the vote, freed from this constraint, I can finally reveal what several activists from this party, led by a leader with controversial ideas, repeatedly attempted to do.
I will not, however, mention the name of the party, not to shield others, but to focus on the actions committed rather than the individuals involved.
Cheating: A Flagrant Violation of Netiquette
If there is one thing the public is entitled to expect from political parties and their candidates, it is honesty. When a party and its activists grant themselves privileges that others do not have, it projects a deplorable image and can permanently damage the party’s credibility.
This party’s leader had nonetheless claimed to want to “do politics differently”, with a populist platform contrasting with the more measured positions of other formations. In itself, that is not a flaw — it is part of the normal political game.
However, in order to create the illusion of growing popularity, several activists — dozens, perhaps even hundreds — coordinated to flood Montreal’s social networks, thereby polluting the campaign with behavior bordering on sectarianism.
Poll Manipulation: A Legal but Immoral Strategy
In every election — federal, provincial, or municipal — Gay Globe polls its readers to gauge public opinion. Generally, Gay Globe’s results tend to align closely with the final election outcomes.
This year, as usual, we launched an online poll asking our readers which party was most likely to win the Montreal election. At first, the results were similar to those of other media outlets: Soraya leading, Luc Rabouin second, Gilbert Thibodeau third, tied with Craig Sauvé, and the lesser-known parties sharing the rest of the votes.
But one day, everything changed. Dozens of activists from the party in question coordinated to manipulate our poll. Overnight, their leader appeared in first place with an implausible 88% — an obviously unrealistic figure. Clearly, the party had organized a mass effort to falsify the results by voting repeatedly and excessively for their candidate. Faced with this irreparably compromised poll, we had to remove it and publish an explanation — a first in Gay Globe’s history.
Harassment and Chaos on Social Media
Every news post about the elections, whether published on Gay Globe’s Facebook page or in the Village Montréal Officiel group (with over 11,000 members), was immediately flooded with comments endlessly repeating the party’s name, regardless of the topic. This relentless harassment forced us, on Saturday, November 1, to suspend group activity for 37 hours, with the following message:
“Given the repeated and relentless attempts by dozens of activists affiliated with a specific political party in Montreal to manipulate the vote and discussions within the group, I have decided to temporarily suspend the group, along with all interactions, comments, and participation, until the following Monday morning, to allow for a calm and fair municipal election.
Over the past few days, hundreds of people have invaded the group, requiring constant moderation to prevent these activists — whose behavior clearly falls within sectarian patterns — from taking control.
Access to the group remains open, but any form of participation is strictly prohibited during this period.
GO VOTE!”
A Leader Complacent Toward the Orchestrated Chaos
Despite the situation, the party leader never intervened to calm the sectarian excesses of his activists. The election results reflect the extent of their behavior, showing a very low score, even though their artificially inflated presence on social media should have produced stronger results.
By harassing the public with excessive behavior, Montrealers were not fooled nor manipulated by this party. Instead of generating genuine enthusiasm for a change in administration, the party, its leader, and its supporters reaped only contempt and rejection from the population. Let this be a lesson to them.
Definition of a Sect and Sectarian Behavior in Politics
According to Larousse, CNRTL, and sociologist Jean-Marie Abgrall, a sect is a group gathered around a belief, an ideology, or a leader, whose influence is often authoritarian, closed, and exclusive. It is characterized by total adherence to an idea or person, rejection of the outside world, and a tendency to control the thought or behavior of its members.
The usual behavior of members of a political sect includes excessive and unconditional loyalty to the group and its leader, often at the expense of their own judgment. They adopt conformist thinking, reject criticism, display a strong sense of exclusive belonging, show aggressiveness toward dissenting opinions, participate in coordinated actions to manipulate public opinion, and mobilize obsessively to defend the group’s interests — regardless of the ethical or legal consequences.