Websites that track unsolicited calls list numerous accounts from people who received these phone calls from numbers in Saskatchewan, Ottawa, British Columbia and the suburban Toronto area since the campaign began.
The name might confuse some voters, but the calls appear to be compliant with CRTC rules because they also refer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and/or the Conservative party. Many who reported on the sites said the callers identified themselves as phoning on behalf of Harper as well as the Voter Outreach Centre.
The calls originate with IMKT Direct Solutions, the phone-bank company that makes voter-identification and get-out-the-vote calls for the Conservative party.
Andrew Langhorne, president of the firm, says its phone operators are always required to identify their client in calls.
“The Voter Outreach Centre is an operating company of ours but we would only make calls where we identify the client – period, full stop,” Langhorne said.
Langhorne said the company makes millions of voter-outreach calls and allowed that mistakes with identification could be made, but he said that, if so, the company would take action to ensure the phone operator didn’t do it again, and would even consider firing the worker.
Trademark records show IMKT Direct Solutions registered the name Voter Outreach Centre in February 2011. The name was used in calls made in the 2011 election campaign.
On the websites that track telemarketing calls, some annoyed call recipients have posted details of the calls since the election began, with many reporting hang-ups.
“Conservative party pretending to be the ‘Voter Outreach Centre,'” wrote one user with the name “Tired of this.”
A poster named “blu” reported receiving a call from a 705 area code number on Monday, saying the caller “identified herself as ‘voter outreach centre’… asked for my daughter, who doesn’t live here anymore.”
“Called me this morning at 11:12,” another poster identified as “DJ” wrote. “They said they were calling from the Voter Outreach Centre and wanted to know if I would be supporting Harper in this election.”
A poster with the name “Linda in Ottawa” said the caller asked if she would be voting Conservative. “The caller had heavy accent and repeatedly mispronounced the local riding-Nepean. When confronted about the title of local riding, she abruptly hung up.”
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission requires that unsolicited political calls have a legitimate call-back number on the call display.
The numbers provided with these calls direct people to a pre-recorded message for the “Voter Outreach Centre for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada” with a request to leave a message.
Chris Alemany, a city councillor in Port Alberni, B.C., said he got one of the calls this week but has no idea how his name ended up on the party’s phone list. He said has never given it to the Tories, and “I have expressed my non-support for Conservatives.”
According to evidence in a 2013 court case over the robocalls affair (in which several voters were directed to the wrong polling stations), Voter Outreach Centre was the name used by callers working for the Responsive Marketing Group, the business name used by iMarketing to make millions of calls to voters in the 2011 election.
The court challenge of the 2011 election results, brought by the Council of Canadians, alleged that misleading phone calls about changes to polling locations changed the outcome of the vote in six ridings. The claim was rejected by the Federal Court of Canada.
In an affidavit, former RMG phone worker Annette Desgagne testified that scripts provided by the company initially required callers to identify themselves as “Voter Outreach Centre of the Conservative Party of Canada” when making calls for the Tories in the 2011 election.
But about three days before the election, Desgagne claimed, the scripts the callers used were changed.
“The new scripts we were to read did not identify that we were calling on behalf of the Conservative Party nor did we mention the local Conservative candidate,” she said in her affidavit.
“The new script, as far as I can recall, was as follows: “Hello. My name is Annette Desgagne. I am calling from the Voter Outreach Centre. Elections Canada has made some last minute changes to the polling stations.”
Langhorne submitted evidence in the case rebutting Desgagne’s claims. The judge in the case sided with Langhorne and found no wrongdoing by RMG or its employees.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: GLEN MCGREGOR
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