By Aug. 16, the agency had fielded 1,394 complaints alleging specific instances of misleading phone calls during the election from people in 234 different ridings, according to new data provided by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
The total marks a sharp increase on the approximately 700 complaints that Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand cited when he spoke to a parliamentary committee in March.
The figures were released by the Commissioner of Canada Elections in response to a request from the applicants in a series of Federal Court challenges that seek to overturn the election results in seven ridings won by Conservative candidates.
The Council of Canadians, an activist public-interest group, is backing the applications.
In the court case, the applicants had asked the commissioner’s office to produce more details about the nature of the complaints, the specific ridings of each complaint, and details about ongoing investigations into the alleged electoral fraud.
But new commissioner Yves Côté, who started his job in July, is refusing to hand over these details, saying through his lawyer that the information would violate the confidentiality of the complainants and could jeopardize ongoing investigations.
Côté’s office has filed a Canada Evidence Act certificate claiming an exemption from a court order to produce the information that would “encroach upon the public interest.”
“Public disclosure information from a partially completed investigation carries the serious risk compromising the investigation by, among other things. influencing the testimony of witnesses, impairing the ability to verify information already obtained. and affecting the willingness of witnesses to speak,” Côté writes in the certificate.
Côté also says that releasing more information before the validity or seriousness of the complaints has been determined “poses a serious threat to public confidence in the fairness of the electoral process.”
Of greatest interest to the Council of Canadians is whether Elections Canada has extended its probe of misleading phone calls beyond the Ontario riding of Guelph, where investigators have spent 15 months searching for the Pierre Poutine suspect behind more than 6,000 election day pre-recorded robocalls to voters.
Although there have been reports of Elections Canada has interviewed a few people in northern Ontario, it remains unknown what steps, if any, the agency has taken to investigate complaints about calls in more than 230 other ridings.
The Council has not said yet whether the applicants will challenge the certificate in court, but the group’s chairperson expressed disappointment with the commissioner’s position.
“Elections Canada won’t tell us the basic facts of the case: when the complaints were received, which ridings are involved or what they are doing about it other than chasing Mr. Poutine,” said Maude Barlow.
“Canadians have the right to know whether the elections in their ridings might have been hijacked and what Elections Canada is doing about it. That is all we are asking.”
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: GLEN MCGREGOR AND STEPHEN MAHER
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