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2011 Canadian federal election voter suppression scandal

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A woman protesting the robocall scandal on Parliament Hill

The 2011 Canadian federal election robocall scandal (also known as Robogate[1][2][3] and RoboCon [1][2][3][4]) is an ongoing political scandal over misleading robocalls during the 2011 Canadian federal election. Elections Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are investigating claims that robocalls were used in an attempt to dissuade voters from casting their ballot by telling them their poll stations had changed location.[4] In addition, other electoral law violations have emerged as the evidence has unfolded. Fraudulently representing an Elections Canada officer is an offense, as is representing yourself as from another party. Misdirecting someone to a false polling station or dissuading someone from voting is a violation of the Canada Elections Act.[5] In the investigation in the riding of Guelph, Ontario, the Conservative Party failed to disclose to Elections Canada their spending on robocalls. Investigations are ongoing by Elections Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada and the RCMP. Expanded authority to deal with the robocall scandal has been granted to Elections Canada by the House of Commons.

While the Elections Canada investigation initially focused on calls sent into Guelph amidst nationwide complaints, the investigation has continued to expand in scope and continues to examine complaints in other ridings across the country. During Parliamentary Committee hearings, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand explained that complaints of fraudulent election calls were received across 200 of Canada's 308 ridings, recorded in all ten provinces and one territory.[6][7][8] Elections Canada has promised to deliver a further report on the robocall scandal.

The allegations have received widespread national media attention and protests were organized to take place on March 11, 2012, across Canada in at least 27 cities.[9] A second round of cross-Canada protests occurred in at least 21 cities on March 31 and April 1, 2012 followed by a third round of protests which were scheduled to occur April 29, 2012 termed the "National Day Against Election Fraud"

The calls

In February 2012, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported that, during the 2011 Canadian federal election, misleading phone calls were placed into at least 14 ridings, including Guelph, Ontario. Those calls directed voters to the wrong polling stations.[10] The fraudulent automated calls displayed the phone number of a prepaid "burner phone", registered to a "Pierre Poutine" of "Separatist Street" in Joliette, Quebec. In addition, "Pierre Poutine" also used the alias "Pierre Jones" of pierres1630 at gmail.com, living at the fictional address of 54 Lajoie Nord in Joliette, Quebec. A Paypal account was used to pay for the calls to Racknine, and logged "Pierre Poutine"'s credit card information. Paypal has turned over activity logs and transaction logs to investigators.[11] as has RackNine.

The day before Election Day, the phone was activated and used to call Racknine, an automated call company with Conservative links. "Pierre Poutine" used the phone to record a series of messages, which directed voters to phony voting locations. The call display number for these calls was set up to display as originating from Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote's campaign office. One pro-Liberal message was recorded with RackNine by "Pierre Poutine" but never used to call voters. The owner of Rack Nine, has confirmed to Elections Canada, they had a contract with the Conservative Party not to do business with any other party. However, Racknine describes itself as a "non-partisan firm, free from any party affiliation, bias, or designation"[12] Both the Liberal campaign in Guelph and RackNine have confirmed they did not do business with each other. The investigation into RackNine has not revealed any involvement between RackNine and any other party than the Conservative Party.[13] Racknine has been used legitimately by a number of Conservative candidates, including Guelph CPC Candidate Marty Burke, and CPC leader Stephen Harper in Calgary Southwest. [14] The Conservatives have refused to say how much business they have done with RackNine.[15]

The investigation into fraudulent calls in Guelph revealed that thousands of automated calls were sent shortly after 10 AM on Election Day, telling people their voting location had changed.[16] Complaints flooded in to Elections Canada, and a local returning officer called a Guelph area radio station at 10:53 AM and put out an advisory telling people to ignore the calls.[16] Liberal MP Frank Valeriote received a call at his home notifying him that Liberal supporters were being targeted. It quickly emerged that there was an extensive campaign to discourage Liberal supporters. In under an hour, 100 voters arrived at the phony voting location.[17] A signed affidavit indicates that 150 to 200 voters in Guelph showed up at a phony vote location at the Quebec Street Mall and some voters ripped up their voter identification cards in anger. He also noted that the voters who were targeted were voters who had been contacted by the Conservative Party and had also indicated they would not be voting Conservative.[16] This has brought the opposition parties to allege that the calls were a campaign by the Conservative Party to intimidate supporters of other parties.

A transcript of the bogus fraudulent Robocall in Guelph, used during Election Day to impersonate an Elections Canada official: "This is an automated message from Elections Canada. Due to a projected increase in voter turnout, your poll location has been changed. Your new voting location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. Once again, your new poll location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. If you have any questions, please call our hotline at 1-800-443-4456. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. (French version recorded in another woman’s voice follows.)"[15]

Elections Canada emails have been revealed under Access to Information requests and have exposed internal communications on the matter. At 11:06 AM on election day election officer Anita Hawdur sent an e–mail to legal counsel Karen McNeil titled: “URGENT Conservative campaign office communication with electors.” Hawdur reported that returning officers were also calling to ask about the calls. A further email was sent from legal counsel to Ronnie Molnar, the deputy Chief Electoral Officer who in turn emailed a senior director: “This one is far more serious. They have actually disrupted the voting process.”[17][18]

The Guelph Conservative campaign of Marty Burke was found to have used 2call.ca, a subsidiary of Edmonton-based Internet Service Provider RackNine, to phone in and record robocall messages.[19] Prior to the election, Marty Burke's campaign called Racknine 31 times. Burke's deputy campaign manager stated that their campaign had nothing to do with the fraudulent robocalls and has insisted that calls appearing to have originated from his phone number must have been "spoofed" to make it appear they were coming from him.[16] Though the Burke campaign has taken responsibility for these calls to 2call.ca, they did not report them to Elections Canada in their return after the election. Elections Canada investigator surmised that though they had not been reported, that CPC candidate Burke had dealings with Racknine. According to Mathews, investigator for the RCMP, "I think it is reasonable to believe that some sort of consumer relationship existed between the Marty Burke Conservative campaign in Guelph for the 41st general election and RackNine Inc., or between certain Burke campaign workers and RackNine Inc"[20] Prime Minister Stephen Harper also used the same service during his campaign in Calgary but has denied allegations that the Conservative Party was involved in sending out any fraudulent calls.[21]

By March 2, Elections Canada had received 31,000 complaints related to the robocall scandal.[22] These complaints were not necessarily all reports from voters personally affected by the robocalls, but rather concern about the robocalls and their impact on Canadian democracy. On March 29, Elections Canada reported that they had received 800 reports from voters who had been robocalled with misleading polling information. In the Guelph investigation alone, Elections Canada is aware of at least 7,600 robocalls directing voters to the wrong voting station, resulting in 68 formal complaints in the midst of intense local media coverage in Guelph on Election Day.[23]

In response to the Guelph robocalls alone, 281 people called Pierre Poutine's disposable burner cellphone back. A voice broadcasting expert estimated that at a typical one percent call-back rate, the 281 call-backs indicated that many thousands of electors were affected, even considering that the nature of these calls would probably have resulted in a higher callback rate.[24] An affidavit filed to secure a search warrant reported that 7,760 call attempts were made in Guelph.[25]

Automated calls into other ridings across Canada

Elections Canada's investigation initially focused on complaints in Guelph, although reports of similar automated misdirection calls were received in some 200 ridings in every province across the country.[26] The investigation has since expanded with interviews reported in other ridings. So far, media reports have published complaints of fraudulent robocalls or harassing live calls in 100 ridings.[27][28] The calls have been reported from Yukon[29] to Nipissing. In Yukon, the election was won by only 132 votes and a number of voters were sent to a phony voting location. Complaints brought to Conservative MP Ryan Leef's Facebook page were repeatedly ignored and deleted.[29] Four ridings won by fewer than 1,000 votes. These included Nipissing—Timiskaming, Mississauga East—Cooksville, Winnipeg South Centre and Willowdale all of which experienced robo-calls. In three ridings of those ridings, robocalls directed voters to phony voting locations and in all four ridings complaints were filed.[30]

Calls from live operators announcing false polling location changes

While the messages sent into Guelph using RackNine's services were all automated, there were also nationwide reports of calls made using live operators in addition to other reports of fraudulent robocalls across the country. In one widely reported version the caller identified themselves as representing Elections Canada and contained the message that the voter’s voting station had been moved “due to higher than anticipated voter turnout”. This call was seen as suspicious by some recipients due to the fact that some of them had either already voted at their original voting station,[31] had used the same voting station for decades, or were party staffers.[32]

Employees of Responsive Marketing Group Inc, a call centre with live operators located in Thunder Bay and used only by the Conservative Party, stated earlier in the 2011 campaign that they had made calls to identify recipients as either Conservative supporters or Liberal/NDP supporters. Depending on their stated allegiance, the recipients would later receive different scripted messages, such as a get-out-the-vote calls to identified Conservative supporters only.[33] Some call centre workers became concerned that what they were doing was wrong and possibly illegal, and informed their supervisors and the RCMP. Their supervisors told them to stick to their script. The RCMP in Thunder Bay referred it to the RCMP in Ottawa. Cpl. Laurence Trottier referred it to Elections Canada. Elections Canada has a policy of not discussing current investigations and has refused to make any statements.[34][35]

Harassing calls claiming to be from the Liberal Party

Some reports have centered on live and automated calls falsely claiming to be from the Liberal Party.[36] Voters reported rude calls, racist calls mimicking ethnic accents, or very-early or late-night phone calls from live callers.[17][37]

Jewish voters from ridings including Eglinton—Lawrence and York Centre reported receiving calls while observing the Sabbath, where the Liberal campaigns report that they did not send these calls. The campaigns explained that their campaigns are careful to respect religious observation on the Sabbath and definitely were not the source of these calls.[38]

Falsely misrepresenting oneself as a political party is a crime under the Canada Elections Act.

Controversial robocalls not claiming to be from Elections Canada

In Peterborough, Ontario, Conservative Dean Del Mastro's campaign used robocalls. The calls did not identify the Tory campaign, but only used the name "Jeff", the name of Del Mastro's campaign manager, Jeff Westlake, and included a callback number. Telemarketing rules require a name or legal entity to be named in each call. The calls were made using Campaign Research, a firm used by 39 Conservative ridings during the 2011 election.[39] Voters reported confusion following the endorsement message, as the Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament for Peterborough is also named Jeff, who subsequently issued a public statement to explain that he was not, in fact, endorsing Dean Del Mastro. Del Mastro is now the MP in charge of responding to the robo-call scandal.[40]

The Liberal campaign in Guelph sent a controversial automated phone call, which did not identify the origin of the calls as the Liberal Party and attacked the Conservative candidate over his position on abortion. The calls did not misdirect voters regarding polling stations, or fraudulently represent themselves as another party or from Elections Canada, but gave a pseudonym. They said that in no way did the Conservative candidate Marty Burke support a woman's right to choose.[41] The Liberals have said they have fully disclosed their spending related to the robo-calls to Elections Canada. They have released their information on the calls, including a pair of transcripts and voice recordings.[42] Elections Canada has not indicated it has found anything requiring investigation.[16]

In response to the investigation the Liberals have opened their books[43] and challenged the Conservative Party to do the same. The Conservative Party has called for opposition parties to open their books, but has refused to do the same and release their own records.[41]

Investigation

Elections Canada traced the origin of the automated calls to a disposable cellphone in the 450 area code of Joliette, Quebec, and issued a subpoena to the cellphone provider that produced a list of outgoing calls from the same number. One of the calls was found to be made to RackNine and on November 2011 the investigator served RackNine with a production order for records. Thus, the account holder associated with the bogus calls was quickly identified.[44] The owner of RackNine said they had no idea what had transpired on election day until contacted by an Elections Canada investigator.[17] Phone records show numbers connected with Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke and the Guelph Conservative riding association made a total of 31 calls to RackNine between March 26 and early May.[45]

Investigators pointed out that whoever set up the account that sent out the fraudulent recorded messages tried hard to cover his electronic tracks by using a prepaid credit card to buy a prepaid cellphone, registering an account under a fake name and address and using a different fake name and address (Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street, Joliette, Quebec.) to set up his cellphone. However the CEO of RackNine was eventually able to trace a specific IP address associated with the calls, which belongs to a private home. This revelation may have convinced a suspect to step forward and accept responsibility for the deceptive calls.[46]

There have been concerns that the robo-call user had access to the Conservative Party national voter identification database, known as "CIMS". The information from this database has been used to target voters who identified themselves as voting against the Conservative Party.[47][24] The CIMS database requires a secure login, and all of the activity on the database is logged. Since the voters who were targeted had spoken (on legitimate calls) with the Conservative Party and identified themselves as non-Conservative voters, the initiator of the robocalls ("Pierre Poutine") had been one of a limited number of Conservative Party staff or volunteers who had access to the voter database. The Conservative Party has not revealed the list of people who have access to this database. There is evidence that someone has deleted entries in the CIMS database, ahead of RCMP and Elections Canada investigators. The day the Guelph data was accessed shows blanks between their login and logoff. The Conservative party's investigator, Hamilton, has instructed party workers not to discuss the events and Elections Canada continues to investigate Conservative party headquarters.[48][49]

Liberal Member of Parliament Marc Garneau has requested that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which "can investigate unsolicited calling activity without court orders",[50] be involved in the investigation.

On March 15, 2012, Elections Canada indicated that it would expand its investigation in response to additional complaints received. Tim Charbonneau, an Elections Canada investigator, joined Al Mathews, a former investigator for the RCMP. Al Mathews has been involved in the investigation of Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney over the Airbus affair, as well as Privacy Commissioner Radwanski.[15] Mathews, who is leading the RCMP probe into the robocalls and Charbonneau are now interviewing witnesses beyond those people who lived in the riding of Guelph, Ontario.[38] Elections Canada has promised to provide a report to Parliament and the Chief Electoral Officer has requested Parliament invite him to address the parliamentary committee dealing with electoral matters.[51] The Conservative Party's investigation is being conducted by Arthur Hamilton, a lead lawyer for the CPC, involved in the Gomery inquiry, and Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer's investigation.[15]

Elections Canada followed up on at least two instances in which voters received robocalls supposedly from Elections Canada telling voters that their polling stations had been changed. In one instance, Eduardo Harari, a volunteer on Ken Dryden’s Liberal campaign in York Centre, stated that the reason he had been given in one of the calls for the polling station location change was due to the high number of people voting at his polling station. Harari also said that he had received 8 bilingual fake calls from Elections Canada telling him his polling station had changed; one on April 21 and the last on May 2. While Harari did report the calls to Elections Canada during and after the election, he was only contacted by Elections Canada after the second call. Charbonneau also interviewed Peggy Walsh Craig of Nipissing—Timiskaming, who said she received a robocall purportedly from Elections Canada. Craig also stated that she received voter-identification calls earlier in the campaign ostensibly from someone representing the Conservative party. Harari also reports having received a similar voter identification call and also from someone claiming to be from the Conservative party. Both Harari and Craig had indicated they would not be voting Conservative.[38]

Further investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) seemed to reveal a similar pattern to that experienced by Harari and Craig. Mark Mayrand, the chief electoral officer, indicated that he had received over 700 calls from Canadians who claim to have received deceptive calls purportedly from Elections Canada. Specifically, a pattern had emerged in which voters who had previously received phone calls from someone allegedly from the Conservative party and who had indicated that they would not be voting Conservative subsequently received a robocall directing them to an incorrect polling station. Tim McCoy, in the riding of Ottawa—Vanier was one such person who had received a robocall falsely from Elections Canada but only after having received a call from someone claiming to be from the Conservative Party and asking McCoy for his support in the upcoming election. McCoy reportedly declined to pledge his support for the Conservatives. Elections Canada does not contact voters by telephone, nor does it have telephone numbers for voters.[24][52]

On March 28, 2012, Elections Canada indicated that they were closer to identifying the person behind the fraudulent robocalls in Guelph from records obtained from Rogers Communications under a production order. This follows a lead provided by Rack Nine who provided the Internet Protocol address used to both set-up and use to make the robocalls to constituents in Guelph. Elections Canada emphasized that Rack Nine is itself not under any suspicion and that Rack Nine cooperated completely in the investigation.[53]

Pierre Poutine/Pierre Jones had also considered the idea of having calls made to Guelph constituents in the middle of the night spoofing the phone number of local Liberal party candidate Frank Valeriote. The intention was to anger and annoy recipients of these phone calls. The message itself had been recorded but was not transmitted.[53]

An EKOS poll confirmed that non-Conservative voters were targeted by robocalls over Conservative voters, and voters in contested ridings were targeted over those in less contested ridings. The president of EKOS described the result as "highly statistically significant and we can say with confidence that this is not an artifact of chance." and that "These results strongly suggest that significant voter-suppression activities took place that were targeted at non-Conservative voters" The polls data confirmed that the number of voters affected could have affected the election results in a number of ridings.[54] The EKOS poll aimed to answer 3 questions: to what extent may voter suppression techniques have been used to influence outcomes in the seven ridings; if voter suppression activities occurred, did they deliberately target electors who were supporters of particular political parties; and how effective were any suppression activities in discouraging those from casting a ballot who would otherwise have voted?[55][56]

Meier also informed Elections Canada that "Pierre" had telephoned him on his "unlisted office number" and asked to speak with him personally when initially setting up the account. Allan Matthews, the Elections Canada investigator said, "Pierre referred to knowing someone in the Conservative Party", and, "In Meier's view, these facts mean someone must have given Pierre his contact information".[53]

According to court filings, Elections Canada alleged that someone connected to the Conservative party campaign in Guelph had planned to deceive non-Conservative party supporters by making misleading and harassing telephone calls either directing voters to non-existent polling stations or by angering them by phoning them in the middle of the night.[53]

Investigations are currently being conducted by Elections Canada, and the RCMP.[57]

On May 4, 2012 a court filing by Elections Canada investigator Al Mathews indicated that the IP address used to create the misleading calls on RackNine's service was used within four minutes by Conservative campaign staff member Andrew Prescott to also make legitimate RackNine calls. The IP address was assigned to a computer in the campaign headquarters of Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke. Prescott also downloaded a list of telephone numbers from the Conservative party's central database on April 30, the same day that Pierre Poutine account was created. Witnesses also recalled Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona had discussed his extensive plans for a disinformation campaign including sending identified non-Conservative voters to the wrong poll locations.[58][59]

Responsibility

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada have denied any knowledge or involvement. Harper dismissed the allegations, calling them, "broad" and "sweeping". NDP leader Nycole Turmel replied, "The Prime Minister must be tough on crime."[60][61] A Conservative party staffer who worked for the Guelph riding campaign during the election and since then as an assistant for Conservative MP Eve Adams resigned soon after the scandal was reported, but has since come forward stating that he was not involved.[62] The Conservatives in turn have blamed the calls upon multiple parties including the Liberal Party,[63] Elections Canada,[36][64] unnamed "third parties", [65] an isolated incident,[66] that they do not know who was responsible,[67] and that they did misdirect voters, but accidentally.[33]

Other allegations of fraud

By early March, the scandal had spread to include more than just allegations of phone calls affecting the election outcome. On March 8, 2012, allegations were reported by the CBC that hundreds of unregistered voters who were not eligible to vote may have cast votes in the Toronto-area riding of Eglinton—Lawrence. At least 2,700 applications for late registration did not provide addresses or gave false or non-residential addresses.[68]

In Etobicoke Centre, the Liberal candidate, Borys Wrzesnewskyj, alleged that 86 voters voted without valid ID and that a total of 181 people were improperly allowed to vote. The margin of victory in the riding was 26 votes. After being allowed to examine the election records a court challenge has been filed claiming that 181 votes are in dispute. Two voters gave addresses outside of the riding, while 32 others were listed in another riding. Five voters were found to have voted twice, illegally. One polling division Deputy Returning Officer and Polling Clerk vouched for several voters, which they knew was illegal from their Elections Canada training. Wrzesnewskyj's case under Part 20 of the Canada Elections Act started in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto on April 23, 2012. On May 2, 2012 Elections Canada confirmed in court that 51 registration certificates from three polls are missing and cannot be confirmed as ever having been completed. Registration certificates are used to qualify a non-registered voter to vote. On May 18, 2012 Justice Thomas Lederer set aside 79 ballots, ruled that the election result was invalid due to irregularities and ordered a by-election.[69][70][71][72][73][74]

In a further scandal, Elections Canada has been called on to investigate the finances of Associate Minister of National Defence Julian Fantino's election finances, after three former Conservative riding executives from Vaughan[75][76] signed affidavits alleging impropriety in Fantino's 2010 and 2011 election campaigns. They allege there is a second, secret, illegal bank account containing $300,000.[77][78][79] Elections Canada requires that candidates have only one bank account during an election, to facilitate tracking of election related spending. Penalties include up to $1,000 fine and one year in jail, or $5,000 and 5 years in jail.[80] An account statement showed by that the account held $357,939.86 on January 18, 2011.[81] Elections Canada investigations are conducted in private until charges are laid, and accordingly a spokesperson could not confirm if this is currently under investigation.[82]

On March 24, 2012 the Vancouver Sun reported that the still-unidentified "Pierre Poutine" recorded another message purportedly in support of the Liberal Party candidate in the riding of Guelph, Ontario. This recorded message was intended to seem as if it came from Liberal Party candidate Frank Valeriote's office and carried the phone number of Valeriote's campaign. The message was never used, but was retained on Racknine's servers. Valeriote's office asserted that they never used the services of Racknine, the Edmonton based company from which the robocalls and fake Elections Canada calls had been made. Racknine owner Matt Meier stated that the company held an exclusive contract with the Conservative Party that precluded them working for other parties during the 2011 election.[83]

John Fryer, an adjunct professor of the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, and a winner of the Order of Canada, claims that he attended a Conservative campaign school where it was taught that misleading phone calls to suppress voting were acceptable. The course was organized by Fraser McDonald of the Manning Centre and Richard Ciano and Nick Kouvalis, founding members of Campaign Research, the Conservative Party's voter identification and market research company in the election.[84] Fryer alleges that in January of 2010 he attended a three day seminar on robocalling techniques that included question and answers directly discussing posing as a member of another party, and about making rude calls at inconvenient times as a strategy to get the supporter of another party to not go out and vote for their candidate.[84][85] In a letter to the Globe and Mail, John Fryer said the voter suppression tactics described at this seminar were borrowed from those used by the Republican Party of the United States.[86]

On April 9, 2012 allegations were raised that two Front Porch Strategies American employees, company director PJ Wenzel and CEO Matthew Parker, had taken part in campaigning for Conservative candidates in contravention of the Canada Elections Act. The two had posted photos of themselves campaigning in Canada on Facebook.[87]

Response

Elections Canada received 31,000 complaints during February 2012 and the first days of March 2012 alone.[88][89] Most of the 31,000 contacts made to Elections Canada were the result of template letters and automated complaints from websites and various activist groups.[90][91][92] Involvement of American activist groups such as Avaaz has worried many MPs, including NDP leader Nycole Turmel.[93] The number of actionable complaints is about 700.[94] These 700 complaints, not the 31 000 complaints sent in protest, are the ones under investigation by Elections Canada.

Public support for Harper's government in polling was 31%[95] and 37%[96] as of early March. The president of polling organization Ipsos-Reid, which conducted the poll, believes that the Conservatives have not yet suffered any real political damage over the controversy.[96] Later polls, have shown a tremendous drop in support for the Conservatives, partly linked to toll enacted by the robocall scandal. A poll done on March 22 - April 2, by the Canadian Press Harris-Decima showed the Conservatives at 34% and the NDP at 32%.[97] An Ipsos-Reid poll done April 3-5 showed the Conservatives tied with the NDP, at 34% and 33%. Ipsos-Reid attributed this to : weeks of enduring controversy, including the robocall scandal, an uninspiring budget and last week’s auditor general’s report on the troubled F-35 stealth-fighter program.[98] A Leger Marketing poll put the NDP ahead of the Conservatives at 34% vs 32%.[99]

Preston Manning, who was a key player in the formation of the current conservative movement in Canada, indicated that he found the robocall and voter suppression tactics "deplorable".[100] In Ottawa for a gathering of other conservatives, Manning reiterated to reporters that the use of voter suppression tactics is a concern for all political parties. A second concern voiced by Manning is that the revelation of such voter suppression and the use of unethical robocalls means that the Conservatives, "have to worry and all the politicians have to worry about this declining respect — it’s bordering on contempt for political people...". Manning added that "If people don’t respect and don’t like politicians, they’re going to rate that government, no matter what it does, low,"[100] A former Chief Electoral Officer, Jean Pierre Kingsley, has called for a full disclosure of what happened and who did what.[101][102]

According to an early March online survey, half of Canadians believe by-elections should be held as soon as possible in those ridings in which the misleading calls took place. The same survey also stated that 63% of Canadians believe the Conservatives are "likely to provide false and misleading information to voters through telephone calls with pre-recorded messages during a political campaign," while the numbers for the Liberal, NDP, and Green Parties are lower at 55%, 33%, and 32%, respectively.[103]

In a poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid, 75% of respondents agreed that "a special, independent commission of inquiry with judicial powers should be established to find out what happened in the past election and make recommendations on our future election rules and structure."[104] 68% of poll respondents want by-elections to be held in affected ridings.[105]

Protests

Protests began on March 3, 2012, with approximately 250 people rallying in Vancouver, British Columbia.[106] Protests have continued to spread across Canada,[107] with a protest held in Ottawa on March 5[108] and with protests taking place across 27 Canadian cities on March 11, promoted by civil society groups including the Council of Canadians. The protest at Parliament Hill in Ottawa attracted between 40 and 100 people.[108][109] A petition calling for an inquiry into the robocall scandal had 37,000 signatures as of March 3.[110]

In Toronto a protest march, starting at Dundas Square, was held March 11 to demand by-elections and a public inquiry, attracting a crowd of 1,500 demonstrators.[111] A Calgary protest attracted 100 protesters including the Raging Grannies,[112][113] while 60 protestors in Edmonton shouted slogans and sang O Canada.[114][115] In northern Canada, a handful protested in territorial capitals of Iqualuit and Yellowknife. [116] Provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, drew a protest of 60 at Province House. Windsor's protest drew a couple of dozen people.[117] downtown Nanaimo had a small and passionate crowd demanding a public inquiry.[118] In Halifax, 80 people protested and were joined by an NDP MP, [119] and in Victoria hundreds demanded accountability.[120] Peterborough, the riding of Dean Del Maestro, the Conservative MP responsible for responding to the robocall scandal[39] also had around 100 protesters.[121] In Regina's Victoria Park, protestors blindfolded a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald.[122] North Bay residents held a protest at their MP's office,[123] while twenty people in Kelowna held a two hour protest and asked drivers to honk their horns.[124][125] Kamloops had ten residents protest.[126] In Montreal, protesters, some of whom held up placards, held a demonstration and demanded a full public inquiry into the robocall election fraud scandal. Protests also took place in Winnipeg with more than 300 people in attendance including current and former NDP and Liberal MPs.[127] In the riding where much of the robocall scandal began, Guelph, a small rally was held, [128] as a few dozen protested in Kitchener.[129] Simultaneously, protests were held in St. John's, and planned for Brampton, Brantford, Hamilton, Kingston, London,[130] Nelson, Oshawa, Saskatoon, Hope, and Fort St. John.[131][132][133] The second round of protests occurred March 31, 2012,[134] in a number of Canadian cities including Toronto,[135] St. John's, Brantford, Kitchener-Waterloo, Regina, Winnipeg, Victoria, Vancouver,[136] Kelowna, Fraser Valley, Saint John, Montreal, Hamilton, Halifax, Calgary, Lethbridge, Edmonton,[137] Canmore, Nelson, Ottawa (April 1), and Windsor.[138] This day was termed the National Day against Election Fraud by organizers.[136]

In between the first two cross-Canada protests, Belleville held an electoral fraud rally in solidarity with other ridings who have suffered electoral fraud. It was held at Market Square drawing 100 protestors, as well as Liberal, NDP and Green Party candidates but not the Conservative MP.[139]

A third wave of protests happened April 29, 2012.[citation needed]

One contested riding, Nipissing—Timiskaming, was won by only 18 votes for the Conservative Party candidate. On March 7, Liberals indicated they were intending to launch a court challenge and were seeking evidence to support a court challenge.[140]

On March 27, 2012 the Council of Canadians announced that they had launched a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada to ask for by-elections to be ordered in seven ridings where complaints were received and where Conservatives had won by slim margins. The ridings named are Don Valley East, Winnipeg South Centre, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, Vancouver Island North, Yukon, Nipissing—Timiskaming and Elmwood—Transcona.[141][142] In these seven ridings, none of the winning candidates have filed statements in their defence.[143][144]

Part of the Council of Canadians case relies on the sworn affidavit of Annette Desgagne, a Responsive Marketing Group call centre worker who says that she and her co-workers were given scripts to mislead voters on election day into going to the wrong location to vote. Arthur Hamilton, a lawyer representing the Conservative Party, has called the affidavit "false" and stated that he will seek to have the court case thrown out as "flawed" and "publicity stunt". The lawyer served motions to have the case thrown out of court before the supporting evidence had even been filed. Fred DeLorey, a Conservative Party spokesman, added about the case, "This is a transparent attempt to overturn certified election results simply because this activist group doesn't like them." Desgagne has claimed that she was given scripts while working at the Responsive Marketing Group call centre. These scripts identified the calls as coming from the "Voter Outreach Centre" and told voters about phony changes to voting stations.[145][146]

While speaking to voters to tell them their voting location as changed, Desgagne noticed many voters telling her that they had already voted or that the voting location was over an hour from their house. Desgagne says she distinctly remembers calling someone in the contested Nipissing—Temiskaming riding because she had repeated difficulty pronouncing it — a riding with no actual poll location changes. The sworn affidavit states that other employees noticed that the change-of-location voting information was erroneous and discussed it on their breaks. When hearing another RMG employee use a script that identified himself as from Elections Canada, Annette said "Dude, you’re not from Elections Canada." RMG's spokesperson said they did not call any but Conservative supporters, and their scripts honestly and correctly identified themselves as from the Conservative Party. RMG further insisted that they made no change-of-address calls regarding voting locations.[145][146]

Part of the Council of Canadians case involves expert witness testimony from Bob Penner, president and CEO of Strategic Communications Inc. Penner's affidavit says: "The only plausible explanation for such calling to have occurred is for someone at the senior level in a central political campaign to have authorized the strategy and provided the data and the funds with which to carry it out."[147]

On May 22, 2012, Conservatives who had claimed the seven seats called on the courts to dismiss all claims that could cause a byelection, relying on the tight deadlines for such a filing (30 days) rather than on the substance of the allegations. [5] The Council of Canadians, which had organized the plaintiffs, indicated it would continue to press all seven cases, was abandoning none of them, and would oppose the Conservatives' motions , referring to them as " nothing more than an effort to dismiss the democratic rights of individual Canadians...If the Conservatives really want to get to the bottom of the robocalls scandal, they would be keen to have these cases heard and decided. Instead, they are bringing entirely meritless motions to prevent that from happening." [6]

Outcomes

Many ridings in the election were won by a margin of fewer than 1,000 votes. If any riding has had electoral fraud that affected a number of voters that could have changed the outcome of the election, a judge can overturn the results. If the election results are thrown out in those ridings where election fraud is found to have altered the final results of the vote by-elections could be called potentially altering the makeup of the House of Commons.[148][149]

Furthermore, the Canada Elections Act specifies a variety of penalties for violating electoral law, including fines, jail time, and deregistration of a party. The Act lists a number of offenses would could result in the deregistration and liquidation of the party's assets, including providing false or misleading information.[150]

On March 12, the House of Commons passed a unanimous non-binding motion in favour of granting greater investigative powers to Elections Canada and requiring telecommunication companies that contact voters during elections to register with Elections Canada. The government has six months to bring forward legislation containing these reforms. [151]

Electoral law in Canada

It's illegal under the Canada Elections Act to impersonate Elections Canada or to interfere with somebody's right to vote. Under Section 403 of the Criminal Code finds individuals who fraudulently impersonate others "(a) with intent to gain advantage for themselves or another person" or "(c) with intent to cause disadvantage to the person being personated or another person" guilty of identity fraud. On an indictment, the convicted faces up to 10 years in prison.[102] [152] The Elections Canada Act has as an offence: Section 43(a) and 43(b): the wilful obstruction and impersonation of the duties of an election officer; S.56(e): the misuse of information obtained from the Register of Elections; S.281(g): the wilful endeavour to prevent and elector from voting; S.480(1): the intent of delaying or obstructing the electoral process; and S.482(b): anyone who "induces a person to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate at an election" guilty of intimidation of the electoral process. Anyone convicted under s. 482(b) faces, on a summary conviction, a maximum $2,000 fine, or a maximum of one year in prison, or both. On an indictment, individuals found guilty face a maximum of five years in prison, a maximum $5,000 fine, or both. [102][153]

The current Commissioner is William Corbett.[154] The Commissioner (not the Chief Electoral Officer) is responsible for enforcing the Canada Elections Act and investigating complaints made.[51] He can dismiss complaints if they are outside his jurisdiction, if sufficient remedy has been enacted or if there is no public interest to continue. The office of the Commissioner has investigators available but are able to draw on the RCMP for their investigative capacities for their expertise if he believes there has been an infraction of the Criminal Code. His office has the statutory authority to spend the money necessary to enforce the Canada Elections Act. He then will forward it to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether charges will be laid.[154]

See also

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