The Commissioner of Canada Elections' office investigated possibly fraudulent election eve phone calls made in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding during the federal election, but will not pursue charges.
“Our investigator found no one who had actually been influenced in their vote because of the purported telephone call, nor was he able to identify the source or the person or persons who actually made the calls,” said a Feb. 12 letter on Elections Canada and Commissioner of Canada Elections letterhead from legal counsel John Dickson to one of the people who complained. “Our investigation will now be concluded.”
A March 2 letter from Dickson to executive members Paul McKivett and Sebastian Silva of the Liberal Party's electoral riding association for Saanich-Gulf Islands says the same thing.
On Oct. 13, the day before the federal election, residents received an automated phone message urging them to support NDP candidate Julian West. West had withdrawn from the race 20 days earlier, but too late for his name to be removed from the ballot.
Residents with call display said the call appeared to be coming from the NDP's riding association president, Bill Graham, but Graham was adamant the message did not come from him.
“In order to recommend charges in this matter,” Dickson's letter said, “evidence would be required to demonstrate that the recipient of the call knew the position held by Mr. Graham as well as his telephone number and that they were thereby influenced in their vote. In addition, evidence of the actual source of the calls and the person or persons who made them would be required.”
The investigator found no such evidence, the letter said, so the matter was closed.
“I just can't believe they couldn't find who actually contracted to do that,” said Democracy Watch co-ordinator Duff Conacher. “I do not believe the Commissioner of Elections cannot find who was responsible.”
Conacher said the commissioner's office also appears to have made a mistake interpreting the law. It is irrelevant whether or not anyone was actually influenced to vote a certain way, he said. “The standard is not that you have to actually influence anyone. The standard is you have to attempt through any pretense to influence someone.”
A spokesperson for Elections Canada, John Enright, said the commissioner's office is independent of the agency, and investigations follow standards set out in the Investigator's Manual. “I can assure you all due diligence was done.”
Dickson's letter to McKivett and Silva said Elections Canada continues to review documents submitted by third party advertisers. McKivett and Silva had raised questions with the office about connections between third party advertisers and Conservative Gary Lunn's campaign.
“In the event that [the Political Financing and Audit] Directorate is of the view that any such filing requires further review and/or investigation, it is within the discretion of the PFAD to refer the matter to the Commissioner for his consideration,” wrote Dickson.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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Rod Smelser
3 years ago
I guess Duff Conacher thinks ...
... that urging people to vote NDP is an offence by definition, and needs no further elaboration.
Romeogolf
3 years ago
Ask Duff Conacher
I think you're being very presumptuous here, Rod. Why guess? Ask him directly.
Duff Conacher is non-partisan when it comes to any attempt by politicians or political parties to subvert democracy.
In this case, it is clear that urging people to vote for a candidate whom had withdrawn is deceit. It doesn't matter what party is involved. This is wrong.
Rod Smelser
3 years ago
Romeo: I think I was kidding
However, I do think Duff is assuming that things are easy to prove, when they may not be.
Where is there an electronic log of where the calls actually came from? People's recollection of a number on their call display is not something that can easily be verified. Even if you do find the actual number used, assuming the call displays were successfully scammed by some techno trickery, what have you got? If that number is no longer in service, or was some kind of skype thingy, ... which Internet cafe do you want to start with?
Now, suppose alternatively that someone from the NDP had made the calls, hoping to keep some kind of core party vote together. Should they have been prosecuted in your opinion, and if so, on what charge? Remember, the ballots cast for West were valid votes, so how is recommending that someone cast a valid vote an offence? Just thought I'd ask.
politico
3 years ago
Smelser
You post obfuscating point but a couple things should be clear.
1) all phone calls are now digitally tracked which suggests easy retrieval
2)Why on earth would the NDP do something so bloody outrageous?
You wrote:
Remember, the ballots cast for West were valid votes, so how is recommending that someone cast a valid vote an offence?
This only poses the obvious question. Why on earth is a candidate who is not running in the race on the ballot?
Elections Canada is looking incompetent and complicit.
G West
3 years ago
Elections Canada and incompetence
Can't say I disagree politico...the excuse that elections Canada couldn't find anyone who was influenced by the robo calling is lame in the extreme.
If there was an attempt by individuals to influence the outcome of the vote it should be investigated whether it can be proved anyone was influenced or not.
These should not be questions of degree - democracy suffers when phony impediments are put between people and the ballot - that's the whole point surely.
I think ALL of the aspects of the farcical election in Saanich and the Islands - including the connection of Penn and her campaign to the Julian West mess - ought to be investigated.
In fact, until a complete and comprehensive investigation has taken place I would suggest that Lunn's position as MP for the area is questionable.
Rod Smelser
3 years ago
politico: Obsessed with Lunn?
politico, if you look at the more recent story by Andrew MacLeod, the one not in the Hook section, you'll see a Telus official quoted to the effect that tracing is not easy if certain software trickery is used.
From the tone of your post, I take it that you like the Liberals are obsessed with Lunn and are absolutely apopletic that he "got away". Well, what are you going to do? Go door to door in Saanich-Gulf Islands and denounce a plurality of the district's voters for supporting him?
You make the same mistake so many do, of assuming that their are Liberal voters and Conservative voters and NDP voters, and that these voters are like chess pieces that the parties can move at will. That was the whole theory of the Liberal-ENGO strategy of first attempting to exclude the Green candidate, and when that failed, using the "women coming forward" press release to nuke West.
It was clearly a well thought out, pre-planned strategy, a year or two in the making. It showed a lot of ingenuity, the use of numerous connections and angles, had a fair bit of plausible deniability designed into it, and relied on the use of personalities of known reliability who could be utilized to execute the package.
In fact, it had everything a successful election manipulation should have, except one thing. It lost. And that's why some people are so furious. Are you one of them?