An “elaborate web of underhanded vote suppression tactics” could have meant the difference between Liberals winning and losing a number of races in the 2011 federal election, Bob Rae said Saturday.
The interim Liberal leader made the comments in Toronto as he campaigned for the upcoming Toronto-Danforth byelection, announcing his party had heard complaints of “dirty tricks” — including harassing phone calls “on the scale of ballot box stuffing” — used at 27 ridings, some in hotly contested Southern Ontario ridings.
“We are entering into a kind of Nixonian moment in our political culture, where all kinds of dirty tricks seem to be possible,” Rae said, alluding to tactics used by Republicans under former U.S. president Richard Nixon in the early ‘70s.
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In Etobicoke Centre, among the 27 ridings identified by Rae, allegations of vote suppression and electoral fraud compelled Liberal candidate Borys Wrzesnewskyj in June to file a request for investigation to the Ontario Superior Court, a hearing that begins in April.
Wrzesnewskyj, who lost the riding to Conservative candidate Ted Opitz by just 26 votes, told the Star his office received “really disturbing” reports of vote suppression at two of his strongest poll locations, one of which he alleges was temporarily shut down by a Conservative staffer. Ukrainian and female Somali supporters were especially targeted, he said.
“That should never happen in Canada,” he said. “I cannot accept the undermining of our democratic process.”
A Conservative official could not be reached for comment on Wrzesnewskyj’s accusations on Saturday evening.
Rae added that in addition to harassing phone calls, his party had also heard reports of “aggressive people acting on behalf of the Conservative party outside of polling locations misleading voters, often seniors or new Canadians.” He’d also heard claims that votes had been cast by non-residents of the riding.
Revelations of election fraud arose Thursday, when news broke that Elections Canada and police were probing reports of automated calls, or “robo-calls,” in 18 ridings that falsely advised voters that their polling station location had changed.
An investigation by PostMedia News and the Ottawa Citizen also revealed that voters in 14 ridings received live telephone calls from people falsely claiming they were Liberal representatives.
On Thursday night, Michael Sona, a Conservative aide to Mississauga-Brampton South MP Eve Adams, offered his resignation amid the damning allegations facing Conservative staffers.
Last spring Sona acted as communications director for a Conservative candidate in Guelph, where there were reports of Liberal supporters receiving the phony information about poll locations. However it’s not clear whether he acknowledged any role in the so-called “dirty tricks.”
While denying the Conservative party played any dirty tricks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper left open the possibility of an individual party supporter acting without any party direction.
But Rae, said they did not believe “a lone 23-year-old staffer” was capable of organizing a scheme that involved perhaps millions of phone calls.
Interim NDP leader Nycole Turmel, also on the campaign trail in Jack Layton’s former riding, agreed.
“We don’t believe one person did it alone — too many ridings are affected by this,” Turmel said Saturday.
Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, Harper’s parliamentary secretary, added his voice to the outcry against “dirty tricks” Saturday, claiming his campaign in Peterborough was also a victim in the last federal election and that his supporters were harassed by late night abusive calls.
“Our party condemns these acts,” Del Mastro said in a brief statement, adding Conservatives were “calling on anyone with any information about harassing calls or calls giving inaccurate poll information to come clean immediately and hand it over to Elections Canada.
Rae issued a similar plea specifically to Conservatives who he says benefitted from the tactics.
“If they don’t come forward with what they know then they are complicit with electoral fraud,” he said in a statement released after his news conference.
He requested that an emergency debate on the matter be held once the Commons resumes Monday
With files from The Canadian Press
27 ridings where Liberals allege there were ‘dirty tricks’
On Saturday, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae announced the Liberals received reports of false or misleading phone calls during the 2011 General Election in 27 ridings. He said new reports and information continue to be received by the party. Below are the ridings, 23 of which are in Ontario.
1. Sydney-Victoria (N.S.)
2. Egmont (P.E.I.)
3. Eglinton-Lawrence (Ont.)
4. Etobicoke Centre (Ont.)
5. Guelph (Ont.)
6. Cambridge (Ont.)
7. Hamilton East-Stoney Creek (Ont.)
8. Haldimand-Norfolk (Ont.)
9. Kitchener-Conestoga (Ont.)
10. Kitchener-Waterloo (Ont.)
11. London North Centre (Ont.)
12. London West (Ont.)
13. Mississauga East-Cooksville (Ont.)
14. Niagara Falls (Ont.)
15. Oakville (Ont.)
16. Ottawa Orleans (Ont.)
17. Ottawa West-Nepean (Ont.)
18. Parkdale-High Park (Ont.)
19. Perth-Wellington (Ont.)
20. Simcoe-Grey (Ont.)
21. St. Catharines (Ont.)
22. St. Paul's (Ont.)
23. Sudbury (Ont.)
24. Wellington-Halton Hills (Ont.)
25. Willowdale (Ont.)
26. Saint Boniface (Man.)
27. Winnipeg South Centre (Man.)
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Wendy Gillis
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