.

capricorn · April 26, 2012

Looks like Elections Canada had a contract with the Assembly of First Nations to operate call centres during past general elections.

For the last three federal campaigns, Elections Canada has hired the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to target select ridings with phone calls aimed at boosting the native vote.
The documents show that Elections Canada paid the AFN $50,000 during the last election to set up call centres, read from prepared scripts and answer questions on voting.

Elections Canada describes the contract as part of a "voter education and information" program that has been ongoing with AFN since 2005.

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The documents show that while the AFN was responsible for setting up the call centre to reach out to native communities and leaders, it was Elections Canada that provided the scripts and had final say on revisions.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2012/04/25/19679986.html

Elections Canada officials have repeatedly said they don't call voters. I suppose assigning contracts to do so on their behalf doesn't count.

Jack Weber · April 26, 2012

Looks like Elections Canada had a contract with the Assembly of First Nations to operate call centres during past general elections.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2012/04/25/19679986.html

Elections Canada officials have repeatedly said they don't call voters. I suppose assigning contracts to do so on their behalf doesn't count.

So Elections Canada robocalled thousands of voters to send them to polling stations that didn't exist in the last election...

Is that your contention?

scribblet · April 26, 2012

E.C. lied and misled the House, they targeted select ridings by race with phone calls intended to increase the native vote. What else have they been doing.. and while we are on about it, how about those two Dick Tracy's over at the Citizen, how come they didn't report on this, or are they just selective in what they report. Maybe it's time they told us how they get their information too.

Edited April 26, 2012 by scribblet

capricorn · April 26, 2012

No. I stuck that link here because the thread title says "etc." and I didn't feel like starting a new thread.

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This raises some questions. Is this the only such contract between Elections Canada and special voting groups? I looked on EC's site and although it speaks of cooperation with the AFN there is no mention of a contract for AFN to establish call centres during federal elections. I'm curious to know if the AFN use robocalls or live calls and whether an outside company like RMG was contracted by the AFN to do the calling.

edit: this post in reply to Jack.

Edited April 26, 2012 by capricorn

madmax · April 26, 2012

No. I stuck that link here because the thread title says "etc." and I didn't feel like starting a new thread.

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This raises some questions. Is this the only such contract between Elections Canada and special voting groups? I looked on EC's site and although it speaks of cooperation with the AFN there is no mention of a contract for AFN to establish call centres during federal elections. I'm curious to know if the AFN use robocalls or live calls and whether an outside company like RMG was contracted by the AFN to do the calling.

I was wondering the same...

capricorn · April 26, 2012

We were posting at the same time scribblet.

E.C. lied and misled the House, they targeted select ridings by race with phone calls intended to increase the native vote. What else have they been doing.. and while we are on about it, how about those two Dick Tracy's over at the Citizen, how come they didn't report on this, or are they just selective in what they report. Maybe it's time they told us how they get their information too.

Yes. Why aren't Maher and his sidekick reporting on this. Something else. At least 2 of the ridings contested by the Council of Canadians have large native populations; I'd like to know whether the AFN's call centres were active in those cases.

waldo · April 27, 2012

No. I stuck that link here because the thread title says "etc." and I didn't feel like starting a new thread.
---

This raises some questions. Is this the only such contract between Elections Canada and special voting groups? I looked on EC's site and although it speaks of cooperation with the AFN there is no mention of a contract for AFN to establish call centres during federal elections. I'm curious to know if the AFN use robocalls or live calls and whether an outside company like RMG was contracted by the AFN to do the calling.

grasping at straws, hey? Elections Canada doesn't have phone numbers... this relates specifically to a many years practice intended to, 'get the native vote out'. Elections Canada states phone numbers would have been supplied by native councils/bands. By the by, do you actually have anything to relate complaints/concerns to this specific circumstance/scenario?

capricorn · April 27, 2012

Elections Canada doesn't have phone numbers...

That's a cop out. The AFN has phone numbers and Elections Canada pays the AFN to get the Native vote out.

this relates specifically to a many years practice intended to, 'get the native vote out'.

I take it you're OK with EC involving itself to this extent to get out the vote of one particular group of voters? It's not EC's job to promote the vote of one group over another group with $50,000.00 contracts paid for with taxpayers' money. If the leaders or advocates of groups who tend not to vote are concerned, it's up to them to do something about it and to pay for it. EC should stick to its mandate which is to inform all voters equally and without preference, and to run elections.

Shakeyhands · April 27, 2012

You're trying to make it that the Conservatives contradicted themselves. The fact is, in February Hamilton interviewed some campaign workers. A few interviews constitutes an internal investigation? That's stretching it. At that time neither the party or Hamilton said they were conducting an internal investigation. It was the media who concluded Hamilton was conducting an internal party investigation.

You haven't answered my question yet Capricorn, were they being interviewed for new jobs?

capricorn · April 27, 2012

You haven't answered my question yet Capricorn, were they being interviewed for new jobs?

Shakey, if you've ever supervised a group of employees and an event is the talk of the organization would you not talk about it to some of your employees? In some circumstances, they are the best source of information you could turn to but it doesn't mean you're conducting an investigation.

waldo · April 27, 2012

grasping at straws, hey? Elections Canada doesn't have phone numbers...
That's a cop out. The AFN has phone numbers and Elections Canada pays the AFN to get the Native vote out.

it most certainly is not a cop out. Your underlying premise is to robocall-taint Elections Canada. Again, Elections Canada does not possess phone numbers of Canadians... see the Harper Conservative CIMS database, hey?

this relates specifically to a many years practice intended to, 'get the native vote out'. Elections Canada states phone numbers would have been supplied by native councils/bands. By the by, do you actually have anything to relate complaints/concerns to this specific circumstance/scenario?
I take it you're OK with EC involving itself to this extent to get out the vote of one particular group of voters? It's not EC's job to promote the vote of one group over another group with $50,000.00 contracts paid for with taxpayers' money. If the leaders or advocates of groups who tend not to vote are concerned, it's up to them to do something about it and to pay for it. EC should stick to its mandate which is to inform all voters equally and without preference, and to run elections.

if you have a concern with a practice of Elections Canada, it has no bearing on this robocall voter-suppression issue... no matter how hard you seek to distract.

Shakeyhands · April 27, 2012

Shakey, if you've ever supervised a group of employees and an event is the talk of the organization would you not talk about it to some of your employees? In some circumstances, they are the best source of information you could turn to but it doesn't mean you're conducting an investigation.

In fact I have! Many years ago, someone played a prank after hours on another employee and changed their desktop image to a pornographic one. I was tasked by my manager to find out who was responsible. I went around and casually spoke to a number of my employees to try to get to the bottom of it and report back to my manager. For all intents and purposes it was an internal investigation. You are just playing at semantics if you claim what the CPC had ordered wasn't an investigation.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Shakeyhands

madmax · April 27, 2012

In fact I have! Many years ago, someone played a prank after hours on another employee and changed their desktop image to a pornographic one. I was tasked by my manager to find out who was responsible. I went around and casually spoke to a number of my employees to try to get to the bottom of it and report back to my manager. For all intents and purposes it was an internal investigation. You are just playing at semantics if you claim what the CPC had ordered wasn't an investigation.

The lawyer was asking what everyone wanted for lunch. It wasn't an investigation.

waldo · May 4, 2012

as alluded to in earlier MLW posts... Christian Conservative (aka Andrew Prescott)!

Robocalls IP address matches one used by Tory campaign worker: Elections Canada

The IP address used to send misleading robocalls to Guelph voters on election day was the same address used by a worker from the campaign office of local Conservative candidate Marty Burke, Elections Canada investigators believe.
The Internet Protocol address was used by campaign worker Andrew Prescott to arrange legitimate calls through RackNine, the Edmonton voice broadcasting firm.

But the same IP address was also used to arrange the fraudulent “Pierre Poutine” calls that pretended to be from Elections Canada and sent hundreds of electors to the wrong polling stations, Elections Canada alleges in court documents.

Edited May 4, 2012 by waldo

capricorn · May 4, 2012

The robo-calls fraudster behind the alias “Pierre Poutine” used the same computer to set up misleading pre-election calls in Guelph as the one used by the local Conservative campaign to order legitimate dialing campaigns, court documents indicate.
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An official in the 2011 Conservative election war room, Matthew McBain, recounted a phone conversation with Mr. Sona during the campaign for Elections Canada investigators.

“Sona spoke to McBain about a campaign of disinformation such as making a misleading poll-moving call. McBain warned Sona off such conduct as the party would not stand for it,” the court document states.

Christopher Crawford, a member of the local Guelph election campaign, also talked about conversations he overheard between Mr. Sona and another staffer, Ken Morgan. Mr. Morgan was the campaign manager for Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke.

Mr. Crawford told Elections Canada he overheard a conversation in which Mr. Sona “was describing ‘how the Americans do politics,’ using the examples of calling non-supporters late at night, pretending to be Liberals, or calling electors to tell them that their poll location had changed.”

He told Elections Canada he did not think that Mr. Sona “was serious” but he added that he told his colleague that “his comments were not appropriate.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pierre-poutine-launched-robo-calls-from-computer-used-by-tory-campaign/article2422997/

More evidence is being uncovered showing that there was no centrally orchestrated national robocall campaign by the Conservative party to suppress the vote. Increasingly, the problems appear to be concentrated in the Guelph area.

waldo · May 4, 2012

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pierre-poutine-launched-robo-calls-from-computer-used-by-tory-campaign/article2422997/
More evidence is being uncovered showing that there was no centrally orchestrated national robocall campaign by the Conservative party to suppress the vote. Increasingly, the problems appear to be concentrated in the Guelph area.

what evidence? So you bold-highlight a self-serving comment... as "evidence"! Hey now, are you saying the nation-wide robo-call pattern/events originated out of... Guelph? Really? Is that also a part of your "evidence"?

cybercoma · May 4, 2012

Yeah. They wouldn't stand for it. Just like they kept two sets of numbers for the F-35 and have now put an action plan into place to ensure that they give the proper numbers in the future. Even though Sheila Fraser had already told them they needed to do this before and it's part of the Treasury Board and DND procurement rules to report and use LCC. It was just an honest mistake though. They're going to fix the problems with their 7-point plan. It's the same as the In-and-Out scheme. They're just going to agree to disagree. They never meant nothing by it. They're going to put in place an action plan to make sure it doesn't happen again.

and again

capricorn · May 4, 2012

So you bold-highlight a self-serving comment...

Tell you what. I'll stick to bolding and you stick to colouring.

waldo · May 4, 2012

Tell you what. I'll stick to bolding and you stick to colouring.

tell you what. I'll stick to holding Harper Conservatives accountable... to highlighting the lack of Harper Conservative transparency... to showcasing the Harper Conservative dishonesty. You stick to what you do best - blindly cheering on and accepting everything/anything the Harper Conservatives do... regardless!

Smallc · May 4, 2012

tell you what. I'll stick to holding Harper Conservatives accountable...

:lol: You mean blindly criticizing everything they do, I think.

waldo · May 4, 2012

You mean blindly criticizing everything they do, I think.

apparently, your bandwidth monitoring isn't so time consuming after all... it appears you can quite easily post to support the flailing statements of your booster club comrades-in-arms, hey?