A hearing will be held August 3 in Magistrate’s Court here on a petition to nullify the election of the Protestant school board in nearby St. Martin on grounds that one of the candidates was refused nomination because he did not qualify for religious reasons “being of the Hebrew faith.”
The petition contended that the rejection of the nomination was “unfounded in law, illegal, contrary to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Education Act and the laws of the province.
The petitioners were listed as Harvey Grotsky, the rejected nominee, and two taxpayers who supported his nomination, Harold W. Ashenmill and Julian Kotler. Jean Martineau, Queen’s Counsel, and Prof. Frank Scott, dean of the law faculty of McGill University, are legal consultants.
The respondents named in the writ are the Protestant school commissioners for the municipality of Greater St. Martin, the secretary-treasurer of the Protestant School Commission for the municipality of St. Martin, and the winning candidate.
The petition noted that the winning candidate received 31 votes and another candidate obtained 11 votes but that Mr. Grotsky, who was not an official candidate, received 100 votes written in on the ballot. The petition asked that the election be nullified, that Mr. Grotsky be declared eligible and qualified as a candidate, and that the court order a new election.
The background of the suit is that there are no public schools in St. Martin and Jewish children attend the school system operated by the Protestant church.
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