Firm with Tory links traced to election day ‘robocalls’...
haffajappa
British Columbia Posts: 5,955
Firm with Tory links traced to election day ‘robocalls’ that tried to discourage voters
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22 ... ls-traced/
By Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor
Elections Canada has traced fraudulent phone calls made during the federal election to an Edmonton voice-broadcast company that worked for the Conservative Party across the country.
While the agency investigates, aided by the RCMP, the Conservatives are conducting an internal probe. A party lawyer is interviewing campaign workers to find who was behind the deceptive “robocalls.”
Elections Canada launched its investigation after it was inundated with complaints about election day calls in Guelph, Ont., one of 18 ridings across the country where voters were targeted by harassing or deceptive phone messages in an apparent effort to discourage Liberal supporters from voting.
In Guelph, a riding the Conservatives hoped to take from the Liberals, voters received recorded calls pretending to be from Elections Canada, telling them their polling stations had been moved. The calls led to a chaotic scene at one polling station, and likely led some voters to give up on voting.
Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen have found that Elections Canada traced the calls to Racknine Inc., a small Edmonton call centre that worked for the party’s national campaign and those of at least nine Conservative candidates, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s own campaign in Calgary Southwest. There is no evidence that Harper’s campaign or any of the other candidates were involved in the calls.
Racknine says it was unaware its servers were being used for the fake calls.
HOW RACKNINE WORKS
Fred DeLorey, a spokesman for the Conservative Party, declined to say how much business the party did with Racknine during the campaign. He said the party does not know who was behind the calls, and he did not respond to a question about its internal investigation.
live pearl jam is best pearl jam
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http://leadnow.ca/robocall-fraud
The crime bill, the piracy (spying) bill, this major election fraud.....the fact that only 39% of Canadians managed to elect a majority government...nothing in Canadian politics is democratic at the moment. the Cons are presenting these bills as if they were mandated by their election platform, because they won a majority of seats. Yet the Canadian people do not want mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders, and a massive expansion of our prison system. We dont want the government spying on us electronically.... Most Canadians didn't even want a Conservative government! These fuckers need to go. now.
the primary problem tho is conservative supporters don't really care about this stuff and will turn a blind eye ...
But the Cons used Adscam as one of their focal points in obliterating the liberal party...That was a $4 million scandal, which basically brought the already fractured libs to their knees. You would hope that people will make at least as big a deal of this. Not about to hold my breath tho, esp when the last snap election caused by their last bout of election fraud - the In and Out scandal - resulted in more Con seats :?
Also...this couldnt happen at a worse time for the opposition. Still no support for libs, the NDP in the middle of a leadership race..
that's the thing ... despite all the scandals - the cons increased their vote in the last election ... which is what made me post the above ...
most of the people i know who vote conservative never hold that party responsible for anything ... it's always liberal this ... and liberal that ...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
The sad part is that the liberals and NDP are dragging their feet getting a leader in place and until they get leaders in place no one is really holding Harper accountable.
The thing I dislike the most about Harper though is his lack of respect for the courts...Just look at the crime bill (mandatory minimum sentences), taking control away from judges is just wrong, they need to pass sentences on what they hear in court...the online spying bill...avoiding the courts to spy on us is total bs.
Those robocalls make sense because most polls before the election had him getting another minority.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
yeah ... this crime bill is brutal ... it's almost patriot actish ...
...and going to cause cashed strapped provinces billions...in a time when crime is going down...which leads me to believe that our current system of focusing on rehabilitation instead of just punishment is working. The worst part of that bill is the language governing marijuana...that is just brutal...that language alone is going to ruin so many young people's life and strip many of them of opportunities for doing what so many have done before them, doing now and will do in the future...if i got it correct 6 plants will now make someone a trafficker and passing a joint to someone in a school zone whether the school is closed or not will net you a 2 year minimum sentence. I only hope the police and the crown attorneys decide not to prosecute or even better yet the province issues an order not to prosecute...just ridiculous.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
There are people here who have NO CLUE WHY they vote Con....but they do because they think it's the only way things will be 'fair for Alberta' or whatever...the NEP backlash is still alive and well here…. we’re a generation removed from it and most people here don’t even realize how much the disdain our parents felt for the Libs has influenced AB’s outlook on federal politics….it’s classic herd behavior.
It’s not just the courts this government lacks respect for…the political/electoral systems, and the will of the people are all afterthoughts to them.
Look at the track record…they plead guilty to election fraud once already. They were found in contempt of parliament for not providing realistic budgets for the crime bill…the same crime bill they are pushing thru with their majority. They pass a fixed election date law, then break the law themselves…The online spying bill, the jet scandal…supporting US-style bank deregulation, shilling for pipelines while calling environmentalists foreign interests…the list goes on and on…and their support doesn’t waver.
I think politicians are as corrupt as we let them be…if we keep throwing their asses out when we find out about corruption, these scandals will happen less frequently. But allowing this shit to go without severe consequence enables them. The last election fraud cost them a $50k fine. $50k! By the time that ‘punishment’ was delivered, they had already had FIVE YEARS of varying control over a 250+ BILLION dollar budget! And had appointed how many Con senators? I’d say that’s the best $50k a government ever spent.
The conservative reaction in to all of this in parliament is so maddening. Harper called it a ‘smear campaign’!
it's following the same model in the states ... build prisons so your friends can profit off the taxpayer and then create laws to ensure incarceration rates are up ...
ya ... no kidding ... you ever listen to cross-country checkup sunday nights with rex murphy on cbc? ... you get a good gauge of the populace at large ...
the blind faith harper supporters have is ridiculous ... so many people choosing to turn a blind eye ...
I'm not sure how that works in that sense...but It sound like judges will have to follow the guidelines set out by the government.
Judges and victims advocate say Tory crime bill will make Canada less safe
Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201202 ... z1nsuLSFt1
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201202 ... on-120223/
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
yeah...i never understood how 1 party can dominate a province for so long both provincially and federally...seems like if you want a job for life just run as a tory candidate in Alberta.
I think with all those scandal you mentioned its almost like the electorate tunes out scandals because we hear it so often.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
Dirty tricks calls alleged in Ontario election
http://www.ckom.com/content/dirty-trick ... o-election
So much for fair and free elections...not surprised.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
it's similar to how the "accountability act" actually made it less accountable allowing the cons to fraud even more than before ...
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/02 ... omplaints/
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
just pathetic ... there was also local news here during the election campaign of liberal supporters having their lawns trashed ...
(edit: I'm seein reports of up to 57 now.....the RCMP are only involved in Guelph, and Elections Canada are now investigating two ridings....they need to do a full investigation, not just select ridings)
Avaaz is onboard now too...another petition:
http://avaaz.org/en/election_fraud/?fpla
http://www.leadnow.ca/cooperation
The Commons: The Prime Minister tries to bluster it all away
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/28/the- ... -all-away/
He chopped and swiped with his hand. He pumped his fist and jabbed his finger. He raised his voice and he scolded and he challenged and he dismissed. How dare the NDP, they who once propagated a phone campaign that directed disenchanted voters to call Lise St. Denis’s office, accuse him of wrongdoing. Who were they to stand here and challenge him? And with what evidence exactly? And the Liberals, they having recently employed someone who posted to Twitter excerpts of the Public Safety Minister’s divorce proceedings—perhaps they might just go ahead and apologize to the government for suggesting anything untoward.
It was a fine show. All the more so when delivered by the leader of a party that pleaded guilty three-and-a-half months ago to violating the Elections Act.
Perhaps buoyed by Mr. Harper’s bullishness, Pierre Poilievre decided to get cheeky. Noting that the NDP’s Alexandre Boulerice had asked about automated calls, Mr. Poilievre suggested that if the member had evidence he could press 1. If he wished to apologize, he could press 2. And if he had the wrong number, he could hang up and try his call again.
The Conservatives were gleeful about this, many of them leaping up to applaud, several of them grinning as if they’d just been presented with a new bike for Christmas.
Alas, it was then that the moment shifted.
“Mr. Speaker,” Charlie Angus sighed with the opposition’s next opportunity, “there we have a party that thinks that electoral fraud is a joke.”
The Conservatives howled.
“Mr. Speaker, we can see their attitude,” Mr. Angus continued, “their contempt for the Canadian people.”
The Conservatives had been making grand gestures of calling for the opposition parties to produce evidence. Mr. Angus was now ready to oblige.
“Let us talk about evidence that we have already brought forward to Elections Canada. We will show them ours if they will show us theirs,” he chided the government. “780-665-2272 is the number that called into Edmonton East, people pretending to be from Elections Canada and who gave misleading messages and pro-Conservative messages. That is a crime. That is electoral fraud. Do the Conservatives not want to know who did it? We brought forward our evidence. Who over there knows who was involved in this electoral fraud in Edmonton East?”
The closest the Conservatives could come to explaining that was this, committed to the record by Dean Del Mastro: “Mr. Speaker, during the recent election, Elections Canada has confirmed that at least 127 polling stations were changed, affecting as many as 1,000 polls.”
This perhaps explains something, but it does not seem to explain whatever happened in Edmonton East—that riding not appearing on Elections Canada’s list of ridings where changes in polling stations took place.
David Christopherson rose to report on recent happenings at the Procedure and House Affairs committee. “Mr. Speaker, the procedure and House Affairs committee just finished reviewing the Chief Electoral Officer’s recommendations from the 2008 election,” he explained. “He asked that Elections Canada be given the power to demand any documentation from any political party he deemed necessary to verify their compliance with the law. We agreed. The Conservatives did not. How can Conservatives claim they want specific evidence brought forward when it suits them, then vote against giving the Chief Electoral Officer the very power he needs to demand specific evidence be brought forward?”
Mr. Del Mastro stood and offered that “of course Elections Canada has the full investigative ability and authority to look into these or other matters” and that the opposition should turn over its evidence.
Mr. Christopherson stood and suggested that this did not actually answer his question.
A short while later, the Speaker called on Irwin Cotler. “Mr. Speaker, I represent the riding of Mount Royal that was targeted with false and misleading ten percenters before the election that the Speaker characterized as a breach of privilege. It was targeted again with these flyers along with false and misleading calls during the election. It was targeted with calls and misleading calls about my impending resignation after the election which was characterized as a reprehensible act,” Mr. Cotler recounted. “This is not about the absence of evidence, but about the absence of responsibility. Will the government do the honourable and responsible thing and apologize for this pattern of reprehensible acts in my riding and against the integrity of the House?”
Mr. Del Mastro stood and begged for everyone’s cognitive dissonance. “Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party of Canada does not place intentionally misleading calls to voters,” he ventured. “We simply do not.”
Next up Frank Valeriote, who spoke of frustration and confusion in his riding of Guelph. Mr. Del Mastro stood and denied it was anything to do with his side. “Mr. Speaker,” he declared, “the Conservative Party of Canada denies any involvement in Guelph whatsoever with the matter that the member spoke of.”
But now Bob Rae was getting up for a rare appearance this late in the hour. “Mr. Speaker, I have just learned that a court document has been produced from the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections saying that there were 31 phone calls between the Conservative campaign in Guelph and RackNine and that there were 40 calls between Conservative operatives in Ottawa and RackNine,” he reported. “Can the government explain that information in conjunction with the statement that was just made by the parliamentary secretary?”
Mr. Del Mastro stood, but he was perhaps not quite ready for this development. “With respect to the question the member has just asked, he knows he is not being transparent in his question. He is trying to mix apples and oranges here,” Mr. Del Mastro managed, perhaps reasonably. “Were there calls between RackNine and members? Sure, there may have been, but the member knows full well that the matter with Guelph is entirely separate. The Conservative Party is co-operating with Elections Canada in that matter and will continue to do so.”
The Prime Minister managed to clap when Mr. Del Mastro was done, but otherwise he kept his head down, busying himself with his paperwork.
The Stats. Ethics, 24 questions. Crime, three questions. Immigration, employment and the environment, two questions each. Trade, aerospace, bilingualism, science, Rights & Democracy and the seal hunt, one question each.
Dean Del Mastro, nine answers. Stephen Harper and Pierre Poilievre, six answers each. Diane Finley, five answers. Rob Nicholson, Jason Kenney, Christian Paradis and Ed Fast, two answers each. Garry Goodyear, John Baird, Joe Oliver and Vic Toews, one answer each.
Canada labelled ‘immoral asbestos pusher’ as Harper visits Quebec mining town
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le1999035/
The CBC national did a great report not that long ago on this topic....I could not locate video.
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthan ... estos.html
"Life Is What Happens To You When Your Busy Making Other Plans" John Lennon
yeah ... we got a ton of dirty little secrets ... especially when it comes to mining ...
that fucker is like a bad rash.