Murray Levine, a candidate for city councillor in Dorval, was furious when he said he recently caught Dorval security taking down his elections signs.
But what really threw him over the edge is when security told him Dorval mayor Edgar Rouleau was the one who ordered their removal.
Levine is running for councilLor in the Surrey district of Dorval.
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He said he put up election signs with the slogan “Google: is there something rotten in Dorval?”
“It was essentially a marketing test to see the results and obviously the results were good,” he said.
According to Levine, his signs weren’t up for very long.
That’s because for the last few weeks, he says the city has been taking them down.
“They told me that they didn’t meet with the proper placement of political signs, which is absurd because they were placed on fences, they were placed on poles,” Levine said.
Levine says he doesn’t know why the city continues to take down his posters.
But if the reason is because of the wording, he insists freedom of expression allows him to write what he wants on his posters.
Either way, he argues that the removal of his signs may have impeded his chances of winning.
“I was thinking of having the Directeur général des élections du Québec (DGEQ) basically stall the election and have it a week after because of the stuff that’s been going on in Dorval,” said Levine.
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As for the city, a spokesperson said Levine’s signs were taken down on two occasions.
Communications director Sébastien Gauthier said the first time the signs were removed was because they were put up in a place where it was unsafe for cyclists and pedestrians.
As for the second time, he said it was a misunderstanding.
“It was the security agent there who was confused with the directive that he received a few weeks back concerning election posters and signs,” Gauthier said. “He was mixed up, he made a mistake.”
On top of that, the city insists the mayor was never involved.
“It has nothing to do with the mayor, the city, or the president of elections – they never asked for these signs to be taken down, at no point,” he said.
Though the city has apologized for taking down the posters, Levine isn’t off the hook yet.
The president of the elections committee in Dorval is currently analyzing Levine’s signs to make sure they conform to the Quebec Election Law.
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