Anonymous Conservatives have repeatedly fingered Michael Sona, singling out him alone among a group of workers on the campaign of Guelph candidate Marty Burke, but a source says Sona had no reason to believe Elections Canada was interested in him until he was named by unidentified senior Tories in a report on Sun News Network the day the story broke.
The agency never interviewed Sona, the communications director for the Burke campaign, until after his abrupt departure from his job working in an MP's office on Parliament Hill on Feb. 24.
Sona himself had no idea his name had been linked to the scandal until he heard it on the Conservative-friendly TV channel staffed by many former party employees. The channel was the first to tie Sona's name to the calls.
Sona was then working as an aide in the Parliament Hill office of Toronto Conservative MP Eve Adams. He told friends he was stunned to hear his name tied to the robocalls scandal and, after the TV report, offered his resignation in writing to Adams because of the media attention he knew would follow.
Adams initially refused his offer, a source said, but after Adams spoke to Jenni Byrne, the Conservative Party's campaign manager in last year's election, Sona's resignation was accepted.
Adams did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The party denies that Byrne played any role in Sona's departure.
"It's not true," said spokesman Fred DeLorey in an email on Tuesday.
He said the party does not know Sona was involved in any wrongdoing.
"I've been clear from the beginning, we do not know who is responsible and will assist Elections Canada however we can," he said.
As Elections Canada hunts for the mysterious "Pierre Poutine" who registered the phone that launched the robocalls, Sona's name has been cited repeatedly in news reports. But none have produced evidence to tie him to the calls that directed Guelph voters to the wrong polling stations on election day last May 2.
Sona, who had worked previously for Conservative cabinet minister Rob Moore, served as communications director for Burke in Guelph. He made headlines during the campaign for allegedly attempting to grab a ballot box that the Burke campaign considered illegal at a special advance poll at the University of Guelph.
But Sona wasn't even a person of interest to Elections Canada until he was cited in media reports, according to the source. Al Mathews, the former RCMP inspector leading the probe, did not speak to Sona until after the 23-year-old left Adams' office.
Sona has retained legal counsel but the identity of his lawyer is not known.
After he left the Hill, Sona issued a written statement denying any involvement but has not spoken publicly about the politically charged allegations since.
As recently as Monday night, Conservative sources were pushing Sona in connection to the Guelph robocalls. A CTV News report cited unnnamed Conservatives saying Sona had owned up to the calls amid reports that the investigation had traced an Internet Protocol address used by "Poutine" to a home in Guelph.
A source close to Sona said Tuesday that he did not talk to investigators on Monday.
"He never spoke to Elections Canada yesterday, so whoever spoke to Elections Canada is not him," the source said. "Whoever did, and confessed, it's not him."
Postmedia News and the Citizen have learned that Sona has not met with Elections Canada this week and has no future meetings planned.
A source close the investigation said Tuesday that it seems unlikely that a 23-year-old, acting alone, would have been able to pull off the fairly complicated "Pierre Poutine" caper — recording a bilingual, legitimate-sounding message purportedly from Elections Canada, setting up a screen of two false identities using a prepaid cellphone and credit card, and expertly covering his electronic tracks.
In a bizarre development on Tuesday, an imposter pretending to be Sona posted a video on YouTube and took responsibility for the calls.
The video, entitled "Michael Sona Speaks Out," shows a young man resembling Sona taking responsibility for the robocalls and promising to get revenge on the Conservatives for firing him by revealing more about robocalls.
The prank video appears to have been produced by a Florida Gators fan in Orlando, who came to public notice in 2010 for putting a video online that threatened to commit physical violence to fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, a rival football team.
Alabama football fans in fan forums identified the man as Brett Warren, a 31-year-old Orlando man who is on probation for burglary and three counts of theft of items worth less than $3,000.
Postmedia was not able to reach Warren for comment.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher
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