.
Guelph voters call to Elections Canada: Investigate
Fri, 2015-07-17 20:45
#1
Guelph voters call to Elections Canada: Investigate
Fri, 2015-07-17 20:57
#2
30 robocall recipients still want the answers.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/kitchener-waterloo/story/1.3158248
Fri, 2015-07-17 23:26
#3
Wow - welcome back, triciamarie! Stay a while!!
Sat, 2015-07-18 13:49
#4
Wow - three exclamation points! Thanks Unionist. That means a lot. :D
So, the courts have done what they could on this robocall escapade. Time for Elections Canada to pick it back up where they dropped it, in error or fear.
Courts said there was the appearance of political interference with the previous investigation. Issued a conviction, proving impersonation of an electoral officer, in violation of the statute Elections Canada administers. There were admissions in fact in the Sona trial that CIMS was the source of robocall data - and available CPC witnesses couldn't say how this massive breach occurred, much less how this would be prevented in future. This admitted failure to protect our most sensitive data falls squarely and solely under Elections Canada's jurisdiction. Evidence proves that CIMS incorporates information from the Elections Canada official list of voters, which is handed out to candidates for very specific purposes - um, not including electoral fraud.
What else do they need to concede there is cause for intervention?
Sun, 2015-07-19 10:13
#5
From the Mercury article:
"Asked about the robocalls during a visit to Guelph, Thursday, Justice Minister Peter MacKay told the Mercury it shouldn't affect the local race in the upcoming election.
"It's been stated many times that we have run a very clean, ethical campaign. This happened some years ago," he said.
...(Local activist) Susan Watson said she was personally offended by the remarks.
"Especially for this particular riding, they used what many people would consider the tool kit of organized crime, burner cellphones, cash loaded credit cards, fake emails, proxy servers," she said.
"That's not my definition of a clean and ethical campaign."
Sun, 2015-07-19 10:16
#6
And if they won't, the live issue going forward in this election specifically is the Harper government's shameless partisan colonization of the machinery of the state. Even on this. True idealogues, they will stop at nothing to degrade government; elected bodies, institutions, ministries, the democratic process itself, it's all the same to them - impediments to corporate commerce.
Electoral reform is the bigger issue. Including a real Fair Elections Act - what is supposed to prevent all this nonsense, but instead stands in the way of redressing it.
Michael Chong's act passed last month, evicting central control of local party nominations, is a start.
Wed, 2015-08-19 22:23
#7
Great stuff TM, keep it up!
Thu, 2015-08-20 06:55
#8
Update:
Response received from Côté, the Commissioner of Elections, saying there's nothing to investigate and he has no mandate to supervise the use of voters' personal data Elections Canada sends to the parties. This is a shocking admission.
Response received from Marc Maynard, Chief Electoral Officer, in effect stating the goverment did not act on his recommendation to strengthen Canada's privacy laws pertaining to political parties to prevent a recurrence of this kind of crime.
Press conference yesterday announced next steps:
1. Letter sent to local candidates of all parties asking party leaders request a formal interpretation note from the Commissioner of Elections regarding the permitted uses of the List of Electors and Elections Canada's governance of voters' personal data. The Commissioner is legally obliged to comply with such a request, under new provisions enacted last year. It appears this would be the first time this section is used. The Green Party's lawyers are reviewing the request. The NDP candidate has referred the matter to the federal leader.
2. Some signatories will file complaints with the Province alleging a violation of Ontario's privacy law, in that identifying personal information taken from drivers' licenses, vital statistics and other Ontario sources is shared with Elections Canada and thence the parties without any assurance of its security.
3. Côté states that in 2011, 'personation' fell only under the Criminal Code, and his office had no mandate other than to refer evidence of crime to police. Follow up to establish whether evidence of criminal impersonation was brought to the attention of police. This relates to a second robocall message loaded on the same server, same data file attached, ready to go, impersonating Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote.
The group also continues its call for a commission with the powers to summons witnesses, execute search warrants and compel testimony.