Canada PoliticsMisleading election campaign robocalls linked to company that worked for Conservatives
Remember those stories about election day dirty tricks where Liberal supporters in southern Ontario were telephoned and falsely told their polling locations had moved?
Surprise, surprise - Elections Canada has traced those robocalls to a company that worked for the Conservative party.
On election day, Elections Canada had complaints from voters in several ridings, mainly in Ontario, who claimed to have received the misleading calls.
"This is an automated message from Elections Canada. Due to a projected increase in voter turnout your poll location has been changed," says one message retrieved by the CBC from a resident's voice mail system in Guelph.
"Your new voting location is at the old Quebec Street mall at 55 Wyndham Street North."
PostMedia News and the Ottawa Citizen have found that Elections Canada traced these calls to Racknine Inc., a small Edmonton call centre that worked for the Tory's national campaign and those of at least nine Conservative candidates, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper's own campaign in Calgary Southwest.
Matt Meier, owner of Racknine, said he was unaware one of his customers was involved in the calls until contacted by Elections Canada in November.
"We couldn't possibly have known that it was Racknine that was the initiator of the fake calls," he told PostMedia.
"I had no idea what the content of the calls were."
Meier added he now knows whose account was used for the calls, but could not reveal the owner, because of client confidentiality and concerns about interfering with the investigation. He says it was someone "down East."
According to PostMedia, the RCMP is aiding Elections Canada in the investigation, while the Tories have also launched their own internal probe into the matter.
In response to the story, the NDP released an open letter to Elections Canada asking for assurances that a full investigation will be conducted.
"As the [PostMedia] story outlines, and has been documented in the past, the 41stGeneral Election was tarnished with a series of controversial automated phone calls near the end of the campaign. These calls seemed to be intended to suppress voting and discourage supporters of other parties," the letter signed by MPs Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus notes.
"For many, these dirty tricks are just further evidence of how Ottawa is broken and tarnish the democratic process."
If Elections Canada finds evidence of wrongdoing over the bogus calls, the case could be referred to Director of Public Prosecutions Brian Saunders, who would decide whether to lay charges.
Update:
According to CBC News, Conservative staffer Michael Sona has resigned amid reports of the robo-call scandal.
While details are still scarce, CBC News is reporting that Sona, was a staffer in MP Eve Adams's office, and also worked for Conservative candidate Marty Burke in Guelph, Ontario; Guelph was one of the ridings where voters complained they were the target of the automated robocalls.
CBC notes there is no public evidence Sona was involved in the robocalls.
