Successful Coverup, Fall Guy Convicted

The Conservative party has consistently said it ran a clean and ethical campaign and had nothing to do with what happened in Guelph and has also said that they 'fully cooperated ' with the investigation by Elections Canada. This being the case then how is it that only one person was charged, and now convicted, in what was obviously a far wider conspiracy?

November 14, 2013, One of Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s top advisers instructed a potential key witness in the robocalls investigation to delay an interview with an Elections Canada investigator until she could obtain legal advice.

Jenni Byrne, who was the Conservatives’ national campaign manager during the 2011 election, emailed Guelph campaign worker Andrew Prescott on Nov. 30, 2011, to ask him not to talk to an investigator looking into the “Pierre Poutine” robocall until she had a chance to talk to the party’s lawyer.

Prescott, whose computer was later linked to the robocall through web data logs, consulted with party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, as instructed by the party, in December, but he didn’t speak with the investigator until more than two months later –  on Feb. 24, 2012, the day after the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News reported that the fraudulent election-day robocall had been sent through a Conservative voter-contact firm.

Prescott was given immunity for his testimony which turned ot to be “unreliable” and “selfserving” and another key person Ken Morgan fled overseas never to be heard from. It seems that the new Commissioner of Canada Elections will not be perusing this any further in that he can find 'no evidence' that any such calls took place outside of Guelph.

Prescott, however, cannot be charged because he was given an immunity agreement from the Crown in exchange for testimony against Sona — testimony that, ultimately, Hearn found unreliable.

Ken Morgan, the campaign manager, has refused to speak to Elections Canada investigators and moved to Kuwait during the nearly three-year investigation. He has not been charged.

Unclear is whether Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté, who investigates alleged violations of the elections law, will re-open his investigation of the Guelph robocalls to find the other alleged collaborators or simply let the matter drop.

Côté has already said he could find no evidence to support allegations of misleading calls reported in more than 200 ridings that Elections Canada during the election.

Prescott involved more than he said

One person mentioned in the judge’s ruling was Andrew Prescott – the deputy campaign manager and IT professional who received immunity to testify against Sona.

Hearn threw out the majority of Prescott’s evidence, calling it “self-serving.”

“There certainly is some basis for the court being concerned Mr. Prescott was involved more so than he indicated,” Hearn wrote.

Prescott declined to comment Thursday. Throughout the trial, court heard that Prescott withheld information from investigators, even after he struck his immunity deal in December 2013.

In short can you say “successful coverup” and “fall guy convicted”

For more news articles and details of this 3 year 'investigation' see my Electoral Malfeasance page, my apologies if there are some articles that have disappeared since being originally posted.

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