Robocalls report finds no evidence of conspiracy to deceive voters beyond Guelph

Elections Canada has issued a report on its investigation into deceptive calls in the last election, concluding that “the evidence gathered in the investigation does not lend support to the existence of a conspiracy or conspiracies to interfere with the voting process.”

The investigation did find evidence that “incorrect poll locations were provided to some electors, and that some nuisance calls occurred,” but that does not show that the calls were made to try to prevent people from voting, according to Yves Cote, the commissioner of Canada Elections.

As a result, no charges will be laid, beyond those in Guelph, Ont., where former Conservative staffer Michael Sona faces trial this summer in relation to a robocall that sent hundreds of voters to the wrong polling station. He maintains his innocence.

When news of the Guelph investigation became public in February 2012, it prompted 1,726 voters to make complaints to Elections Canada about apparently deceptive telephone calls in ridings across Canada.

Investigators followed up on those complaints, and attempted to trace the source of the calls but were often unable to do so.

“With respect to most cases it was impossible to determine the identity of the caller,” reports former Supreme Court justice Louise Charron, who reviewed the investigation for Elections Canada.

The evidence that was gathered, though, did not suggest an organized attempt to stop people from voting.

“Overall, no discernible pattern of misdirection, such as a single predominant calling number or constellation of predominant calling numbers, was noted,” the report states.

Investigators did find instances when callers from the Conservative Party’s main voter contact firm — Responsive Marketing Group — gave voters incorrect information about their polling station.

“In 27.0 per cent of the cases involving complainants, RMG provided wrong poll location information,” the report states.

The Conservative Party’s voter contact co-ordinator told investigators that those voters received faulty poll location information from the party as a result of database errors. Only the Conservatives’ national campaign provided poll information to voters, something Elections Canada asks campaigns not to do.

Cote notes that the investigation was hampered by several factors. Telephone companies declined to provide records of calls without court orders. Complainants’ memories of the calls were not always clear, and investigators were concerned that those memories were influenced by media reports.

Also, in some cases it was difficult to get co-operation from political staffers.

“Simply arranging interviews took a long time (in some cases, months). There were also instances of outright refusal to co-operate,” Cote notes.

Cote and Elections Canada have been pressing the government to enhance its investigative powers to allow it to conduct investigations more effectively, a measure the government has not included in its proposed changes to the Elections Act.

At a lunchtime speech in Ottawa on Thursday, Pierre Poilievre, the Minister for Democratic Reform, welcomed the report.

“It confirms what the Conservative Party has said all along,” he told reporters. “We followed the rules. We ran an ethical and honest campaign and won fair and square and all of the allegations to the contrary have been proven false and phony.”

NDP MP Charlie Angus said Thursday that Elections Canada did not have the powers necessary to get to the bottom of the story.

“At the end of the day, what we find is if you don’t have the tools to follow through on the investigation, you’re not likely to find anybody guilty,” he said. “And Elections Canada has spoken out again and again about the need to compel witnesses, and get at the paper trail.”

Duff Conacher, of the nonpartisan advocacy group Democracy Watch, said that Cote’s report doesn’t make sense, because the Conservatives’ voter contact co-ordinator acknowledged that errors in the party’s database led to calls with bad information about poll locations.

“The commissioner made the wrong decision because, according to his report, he had clear evidence that the Conservatives arranged calls to voters when they knew that they would mislead some voters,” Conacher said. “They were warned by Elections Canada not to do it. Therefore, they intentionally misled voters and that’s a clear violation of the elections law.”

Conacher said his group will consider launching a private prosecution.

Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com/
Author: STEPHEN MAHER