Quevillon drops election contestation

Former Oka mayor Pascal Quevillon has withdrawn his legal challenge against Oka’s November 2025 mayoral election.
In a December 16 email to the Superior Court of Quebec, Quevillon wrote the decision comes after the defendants in the case expressed they would file a motion to dismiss and allege abuse of process against him.

“In this context, I have chosen not to pursue the legal proceedings initiated, given that I am representing myself and I feel like David against Goliath,” reads Quevillon’s email. 
Two days after Quevillon’s email was sent, the municipality of Oka announced a legal challenge against Oka’s mayoral election filed by Quevillon had been withdrawn.

“This was a complete and useless overreach,” said Oka mayor Patrick Hardy on the legal challenge.

“It’s important for me to mention that it’s in everybody’s right to contest an election. It’s just part of our democracy,” said Hardy, who won Oka’s election on November 2.

“The contestation came at a time where we were just trying to settle in,” said Hardy. He received the challenge after he had been sworn in as mayor. “It came as more of a distraction than anything.”

Quevillon did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

At the beginning of December, Hardy received the legal challenge filed by Quevillon.

In the legal documents, Quevillon requested the Superior Court of Quebec annul the results of the November 2 mayoral election and declare Quevillon the elected winner.

Quevillon claimed his reputation was tarnished during the electoral campaign.

He alleged a complaint filed against him by the municipality’s former director general to the Municipal Commission of Quebec, which he wrote was rejected, spurred an internal investigation against him before the start of the election campaign.

Quevillon alleged the public dissemination of these events during the election campaign, whether online or in-person - such as while door-to-door canvassing - seriously damaged his reputation.

“The election was decided by a margin of 114 votes, so only 58 votes would have been needed to overturn the result, leading me to believe that these irregularities had a decisive effect on the outcome,” reads the legal challenge. “These actions distorted voters’ perceptions and undermined the free expression of the vote.”

About a week after receiving the challenge, the municipality of Oka announced the city had hired the law firm Dunton Rainville to represent the city, Hardy, and Annick Mayer, secretary and deputy election chair, against the legal challenge.

“Citizens were sort of worried,” said Hardy.

But even with the legal challenge, Hardy said the council team is working well together.

Oka’s council consists of seven elected members: four independent councillors, including Hardy, and three members of former mayor Quevillon’s team.

“The mood was a bit uncomfortable within the council in our (first council meeting), but we managed to work through it and just move along.”

Hardy plans to improve working relations within the city’s electoral team.

“We all inherited sort of a fragile team,” said Hardy. “There was a lot of employee turnover in the last few years… We need to realign priorities, we need to become efficient, we need to serve the community, because we can do better than what we’ve been doing,” said Hardy.

“It’s about building relationships internally, and it’s also about building relationships with external partners and neighbouring communities.”

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