OTTAWA – Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, today expressed gratitude for the dedication and perseverance of the Council of Canadians along with eight voter applicants after the positive Federal Court ruling on election fraud.
“This is a victory for those directly involved, but also for all Canadians concerned about the health of their democracy,” said May. “To acknowledge that there was fraud in the May 2, 2011, election is the first step in preventing any underhanded activities in the future.”
Judge Richard Mosley wrote: "I find that electoral fraud occurred during the 41st General Election," although he did not annul the election results in the ridings involved. He did state clearly that the fraudulent calls "struck at the integrity of the electoral process by attempting to dissuade voters from casting ballots for their preferred candidates.”
Judge Mosley agreed that the calls were the work of a broad, centrally organized scheme and that "the most likely source of the information used to make the misleading calls was the CIMS database maintained and controlled by the CPC [Conservative Party of Canada], accessed for that purpose by a person or persons currently unknown to this Court."
Judge Mosley also condemned the Conservatives' legal tactics and their “trench warfare in an effort to prevent this case from coming to a hearing on the merits."
”In light of this ruling which leaves no doubt that there was fraud during the 2011 election, the Green Party once again calls for a public inquiry into this threat to our democracy,” said May. "Any responsible prime minister would want to get to the bottom of such a threat and find out who was responsible."
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