Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, March 09, 2012

Closing in on Pierre Poutine

Exclusive The noose is tightening around “Pierre Poutine,” the figure at the centre of the robocalls scandal, after the owner of an IT company wrongly implicated in the affair traced the individual responsible to a Rogers Hi-Speed IP address in Guelph, Ont.

Matt Meier, owner of Edmonton-based RackNine, has forwarded the information to Elections Canada, which should now be able to seek a legal order to compel Rogers to hand over the name of the customer using the IP address. A spokeswoman for Elections Canada would not comment on whether any such production order has been issued.

Elections Canada is investigating reports that voters in Guelph received calls that directed them to the wrong polling station. The phone number behind the Guelph calls was registered to “Pierre Poutine” of “Separatist Street” in Joliette, Que.

Mr. Meier said after the robocall misdirecting voters was made on election day last year, he received a call from Andrew Prescott, the deputy campaign manager for the Conservative candidate in Guelph, Marty Burke. Mr. Prescott asked Mr. Meier to send out a correction notice, telling people to ignore the initial call. Mr. Prescott has denied any role in making the fake Elections Canada calls. Mr. Meier said he did not sound as if he was the same person who set up the initial “Pierre Poutine” account.

Mr. Meier is irate that his firm, a voice-broadcasting system that hosts robocalls, was initially linked to dirty tricks, even though Elections Canada made clear the company was not suspect.

He set out to find Pierre Poutine, despite the extensive efforts the culprit made to cover his tracks. He said he was first contacted during the election last year by someone who identified himself as Pierre Jones, who said he was a student completing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Ottawa. He claimed he was studying advertising effectiveness and wanted to look at the operation of call centres. “He never was Pierre Poutine,” said Mr. Meier.

Pierre Jones gave what appears to be a false address in Joliette and made payments using PayPal that were purchased with a pre-paid Visa gift card. He then set about making a number of phone campaigns apparently designed to mislead voters, although only one was sent out.

Mr. Meier didn’t hear about the matter again until November, when his firm was visited by Allan Matthews, an Elections Canada investigator, who had a production order compelling RackNine to hand over all emails and correspondence related to the Guelph campaign. Mr. Meier furnished Mr. Matthews with all relevant data and provided him with some of the technical background necessary to track down Pierre Jones.

Galvanized by what he felt was unfair media coverage, Mr. Meier set out to follow the digital trail himself. Pierre Jones had covered his tracks sufficiently that a “burner” phone, PayPal account and the Gmail address he’d been using offered no clues. Mr. Meier spent hours piecing together a “session log,” breaking down when Pierre Jones used the RackNine system and what he did while on it. “We put it together one Lego block at a time. It pierces the veil to indicate who is using the system,” he said.

Mr. Meier said he had his “Eureka” moment at 3 a.m. one morning, and by 5 a.m. had written a 22 page report for Elections Canada. “He [Pierre Jones] screwed up. Just for a fraction of a second but it was enough for me to find him,” he said.

The information supplied to Elections Canada should expedite the investigation and offer some clues as to whether the robocall was the work of one individual or was the result of a more co-ordinated effort, as the opposition parties have alleged. Mr. Meier said he has only been asked to supply information about the Guelph campaign to date. RackNine supplied automated calling services for 12 Conservative candidates during the 2011 election.

“I was shocked the moment Matthews explained some party had used RackNine’s service in attempt to disrupt voting in the 2011 election,” says Mr. Meier. “Our dialing services have been used successfully by hundreds of campaigns to engage voters and inform them of where and when to vote in many elections. The fact our software was used even once for something like this is devastating and we’re working tirelessly to correct that.”

Original Article
Source: national post
Author: John Ivison

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