The
latest story regarding robotic phone calls during the last
federal election is that in one riding the Liberal candidates team
made an error and failed to identify themselves in a number of calls
where they passed on (totally correct) information about an opposing
candidate. They have been fined
$4,900 by the CRTC for breaking telemarketing rules. Once the
error was pointed out the candidate cooperated fully with the
investigation and apologized on behalf of his staff for the error and
is seeking to make the rules clearer for both his own future election
team and that of others.
On
the other hand the ongoing investigation into numerous misleading
and fraudulent in numerous riding across Canada is going nowhere. The
alleged instigators of the calls are doing everything they can to
stall legal proceedings in the courts to challenge certain election
results where results were close and could have been affected by
said phone calls and Elections Canada who in this case are those
responsible for getting to the bottom of the problem appear to be
dragging their feet and are attempting to withhold information from
the court.
In the latter case the number of
complaints which EC has admitted to receiving
has more that doubled since the widespread use of these calls
designed to suppress voter turnout by anyone not supporting the
conservatives became public. We note that since this story broke and
EC started 'investigating' the head honcho there has be replaced by
an individual chosen by the government, the budget of EC has been cut
by the government, and their has been no cooperation in releasing
information from the government, and no call for a public inquiry by
the government. Is is just coincidence that the government in
question is the party that is thought to be the one responsible for
the fraud, and the one appealing every move the citizens make to get
to the bottom of this affliction on our democracy. I think not.
A special Tip
o the Hat to POGIE for his two posts on this linked above. For
the whole picture on the ongoing robocall fraud please see my
Election Malfeasance page which list numerous links to articles on
this subject, they are in approximate chronological order.
Rural Readers please visit my survey
on Rural Internet Communications, for more information on why I
am seeking such information please see this
post at The Rural Canadian.
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