TORONTO - More than 200 peopled rallied at Toronto's city hall on Saturday demanding a new election and a public inquiry into the robocall scandal that followed the last federal election.Millions of automated calls were made to voters which protesters claim gave misleading voting day information.
The protesters are calling for several things to happen:
"We want an immediate suspension of Parliament and a new, untainted election completely free of fraud and voter suppression; A completely open and independent Royal Commission beginning within a reasonable amount of time - no more than three months from the date of Elections Canada's address to Parliament on March 29th; as well as a criminal investigation up to and including the Prime Minister's Office. And complete accountability, including the involvement of jail time," organizer John Allen said.
Natalie Spinney said she is sick of what the government gets away with.
"I'm here because I hope to get the information out that the government is lying to people. There is a lot of things people don't know. They need to be watched," Spinney said.
Canadians can't just let the federal Conservatives brush this scandal off, said Tara Ferrello.
"This has been a major attack to our democracy. The Conservatives have cut funding to Elections Canada. How can they be investigated with no funding? We need a Royal Commission on this," Ferrello said.
The misleading phone calls were an attack on Canadians' democratic rights, said Mike Boyd.
"Our civil rights have been attacked and we need to suspend Parliament. We need to get this information out to the people," Boyd said.
The election was simply stolen, claimed Barry Weisleder.
"We are here to serve notice that the Harper government has got to go," Weisleder said.
"If Elections Canada takes away a few seats from them that is fine."
Jakub Krotochwil says he attended the rally to hear other people's thoughts.
"I want to show my support for the cause. We can't take the politicians at their word," Krotochwil said.
Vikram Mulligan is frightened that the robocalls happened.
"It really concerns me that an election might be stolen. I believe in democracy and this is a threat to democracy. This is not OK and I don't want Canadians to let this go. It is important to demand consequences," Mulligan said.
Smadar Carmon says she is concerned about democracy in Canada.
"It turns out that this election wasn't clean and sound and there is no investigation which makes things worse. There should be new elections in the places that were affected and who ever is behind this should have to pay," Carmon said.
Original Article
Source: cnews
Author: Kevin Connor
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