More on the Robocalls

As you can see from Monday's press release, my letter to Elections
Canada of May 19, 2011,  and from my motion for an emergency debate in
the House, I take the threat to the right of Canadians to full, free and
fair elections extremely seriously.  This is not, as the Prime Minister
shamefully alleged in the House today, a "smear campaign" by the
Liberals.



Anyone who cherishes democracy would be outraged by the facts that have
been disclosed in media reports.  I am disturbed by the Prime Minister's
approach to the facts we now know.  He should call an inquiry.



One reason I am demanding an inquiry is that I do not think Elections
Canada has the resources to undertake the investigation that is
required.  And the RCMP, as well, do not have a good track record
uncovering electoral fraud.



In 2008, robocalls into Saanich-Gulf Islands may well have allowed
Conservative Gary Lunn to defeat a strong Liberal challenge by former
Green Briony Penn.  The facts were well known.  The NDP candidate had
withdrawn from the race, but at a point when it was too late for him to
be replaced. His name was on the ballot, but he was not running.
Robocalls the night before the election reached thousands of NDP
supporters to urge them to get out and vote for the non-existent
candidate. Both the RCMP and Elections Canada abandoned their
investigations without finding the responsible parties.



With that brief factual background, I invite you to read the following
blog from March 28, 2009 by Will Horter from BC Conservation Voters.



His last sentence is certainly prophetic: "If someone with subpoena
powers doesn't step up with some investigative muscle, I predict many
more Karl Rove-like black-op operations in future elections."





KARL ROVE COMES TO CANADA?

Friday, March 28 2009,by Will Horter



Canadians have watched the chaos and dirty tricks happening in U.S.
presidential elections with a sense of superiority - giving thanks that
'it couldn't happen here in Canada". Don't be so sure.



Elections Canada's decision to drop their investigation into the
fraudulent election eve robocalls in last October's federal election in
Saanich-Gulf Islands (SGI) bodes badly for the future of Canadian
democracy.



Expect dirty tricks to increase in future elections.



The 2008 SGI election was full of dirty tricks. There were shady 3rd
party organizations advertising for Lunn, all being created by Lunn
co-campaign chair Bruce Hallsor, as well as fake robocalls on the eve of
the vote purporting to be from the NDP riding association asking voters
to vote for NDP candidate Julian West, who had withdrawn from the
election. The Caller ID displayed on the fake robocalls indicated the
fax number of Bill Graham, president of the NDP riding association who
denies any involvement.



In closing their lax investigation, an Elections Canada official said
they "found no one who had actually been influenced in their vote
because of the purported telephone call."

But Elections Canada and the RCMP seem to have overlooked other laws
that could have been broken. The Criminal Code designates it an offence
"to knowingly provide false information over the phone" (Section 372) or
"to fraudulently impersonate another" (Section 403).



If it was known that the Elections Canada investigative threshold
required "influenced voters" to be identified, I'm sure there are many
people that would have helped them locate voters that felt duped by the
calls.



Although Elections Canada claims they couldn't find anyone that was
influenced the numbers say otherwise. A poll taken just a few days
before the election showed the NDP vote to be at less than 1% while on
polling day the NDP pulled 3,667 votes (5.69% of the vote). The NDP
upswing in voting support surpassed the 2,621 vote margin Mr. Lunn had
over Liberal challenger Briony Penn perhaps winning Lunn the election.



But finding voters that had "actually been influenced in their vote"
should not be the standard Elections Canada uses because that opens the
door to parties (or their plausibly deniable supporters or low level
campaign staff) to game the rules and force someone to prove after the
fact that it influenced voters -a high hurdle.



The fact that that the Elections Canada's letter to Paul McKivett,
president of the Liberal riding association, also said Elections Canada
"could not identify the source of the calls", is also worrisome.



What kind of investigation did Elections Canada conduct?



How can thousands of calls come into a small geographic area from a call
centre in the U.S. and Elections Canada can't track it back to see who
made the calls, who paid for them and who provided the list?



Is Elections Canada really saying that they can't document these facts?
 Is it that they don't have the staff, the authority to reach beyond the
border and compel answers and documents or the political will?



Elections Canada's lax investigation in SGI should raise serious
concerns about future elections in Canada. The signal being sent is that
Elections Canada is not an aggressive investigator.



The signal being sent to political parties, particular the Conservative
Party of Canada - which has a track record of playing up to, if not
over, the lines - is that they can have someone associated, but
deniable, hire a U.S. call centre to flood a riding with spoofed or
faked robocalls and Elections Canada will do little to get to the bottom
of it.



As Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch recently said, Elections Canada's
failure to fully investigate the SGI scam has ramifications for future
elections, "If they are allowed to get away with this [in SGI] what
happens if there's a case where the candidate is still there? Someone
could do bulk calling on behalf of whichever candidate you think will
split your candidate's vote."



Given the one-on-one nature of robocalls it is hard for third parties
that can't subpoena phone records to identify the source or scale of the
fraudulent calls. Only Elections Canada or the police can get to the
bottom of these kinds of dirty tricks.



If someone with subpoena powers doesn't step up with some investigative
muscle I predict many more Karl Rove-like black-op operations in future
elections.