Canadians were complaining to Elections Canada about fraudulent telephone calls right up until election day on May 2, 2011, and after.
Elections Canada received 119 complaints regarding misleading and abusive telephone and robo calls made to constituents during the 2011 general election, as of September 28, 2011. Of these, 30 complaints referred to false information regarding changes to poll locations.
Through Access to Information legislation, Global News obtained a heavily-redacted summary of all formal complaints made to the Commissioner of Canada Elections under the Canada Elections Act between January 1, 1997 and September 28, 2011.
Although almost all mentions of specific ridings and political parties have been removed from the documents, in many cases the substance of the complaint can be inferred.
These include things like:
“Disturbing phone calls received by constituents during the general election 2011.”
“_____ – call that my polling station had changed – moved.”
“Harrassment (sic) from conservative candidates riding of _______.”
“Harassing tel cal during night etc – in French – asking who I will be voting for – preceded by a call from the ____ representative.”
“1/ misdirecting electors to ‘new’ polling sites 2) rude late night spoof telephone calls.”
“Robocall telling him that EC advises him to go to a different location to vote.”
There is no information in the documents about whether these complaints were resolved or what action was taken.
Diane Benson, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, said that she could not comment on information in an Access to Information request. In response to a question about whether Elections Canada was aware of the phone calls, and what action was taken, she pointed to the official report of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada to Parliament.
This report states that the Commissioner of Canada Elections is looking into several complaints relating to, “crank calls designed to discourage voting, discourage voting for a particular party, or incorrectly advise electors of changed polling locations.”
Benson notes that Elections Canada did comment on the issue during the election, when media reports of fraudulent and abusive telephone calls began to surface. “At that time, we in media relations did speak with journalists and say, Elections Canada does not contact electors by telephone, and that they should check with their returning officer to make sure that they have the right information. So I mean, we were saying that at the time. There was information about this in media reports at the time.”
Tyler Sommers, Coordinator for Democracy Watch, said that the public simply does not know how well Elections Canada handles complaints. “Elections Canada has not been very forthcoming in providing details of investigations or decisions that they’ve made.”
He said that Elections Canada should make all of its investigations public whenever possible.
Regarding the allegations and complaints of abusive telephone calls, he said, “We have to see how deep and how far this goes, but regardless, the full weight of the RCMP and of Elections Canada should come down on whoever is responsible for this because it’s an affront to our democracy.”
“People need to have faith in their elections. Without faith in their elections, you lose faith in the entire system.”
“How are we supposed to know if they’re democratic and fair if this information is not coming out?”
Below, you can read the documents Global News obtained from Elections Canada through Access to Information. We have highlighted the complaints related to telephone calls. Clicking the “Notes” tab will show only highlighted complaints.
Comments