Robocall scandal traced to Ont. Tory campaign
An Elections Canada investigation into black ops “robocalls” was focused on a Conservative party campaign in Guelph, Ont., documents obtained by Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen show.
A court order executed on an Edmonton call centre in November specifically refers to records related to the campaign of Conservative candidate Marty Burke in Guelph, where many voters reported receiving pre-recorded messages that falsely claimed their polling stations had moved.
Since reports of that investigation came to light last week, Liberals and New Democrats have reported fraudulent calls in dozens of ridings across the country and the Conservatives have called on anyone with information to send it to Elections Canada.
But the documents suggest any such investigation was more narrowly focused, at least in November.
A production order executed on Racknine Inc. in Edmonton compelled the company to turn over all e-mails, billing records and other correspondence between it and “the Conservative party general election campaign in Guelph.”
The court order also required the Conservative-connected company to hand over the user names, passwords and IP addresses of anyone associated with the Guelph campaign who used Racknine between March 26 and May 31.
The order also required Racknine to release records of calls that used the number 450-760-7746. The Bell Canada phone number in Joliette, Que., appeared on call displays of some recipients of the fraudulent election day calls in Guelph.
Sources close to the investigation have indicated the number was assigned to a disposable “burner” cellphone, purchased with cash and then used to call Racknine.
The Conservatives ultimately lost Guelph, with candidate Marty Burke finishing more than 6,000 votes behind Liberal incumbent Frank Valeriote. Burke, who works as an airline pilot, was out of town this week and could not be reached.
The production order also shows Elections Canada suspects “a person or persons unknown” of committing some of the most serious offences listed under the Elections Act, including preventing or endeavouring to prevent electors from voting and inducing them to refrain from voting.
The offences carry maximum penalties of $5,000 fines, five years imprisonment or both.
The document was issued Nov. 23 in Alberta provincial court. It was obtained based on sworn information from Al Mathews, the former RCMP inspector who is leading the investigation.
The detailed list of records covered by the production order specifies comprehensive listings of all schedules, recordings and the list of numbers of recipients of the calls in the 519 and 226 area codes on election day — a potentially enormous data set, depending on the numbers of calls made.
The owner of Racknine, Matt Meier, said he is cooperating fully with Elections Canada and providing the agency with whatever it needs. The production order makes clear that Racknine is not under investigation.
Meier says he and his family are getting crank calls and threats from people who believe he was party to attempted voter fraud. And he’s considering legal action, specifically against New Democrat MP Pat Martin and the federal New Democratic Party, for defamation.
“I’ve been misrepresented,” Meier insists. “We are not under investigation by Elections Canada in any way. Our goal is to assist them in identifying, catching, and hopefully convicting whoever was involved in this process. We want this person to be caught.”
Elections Canada acknowledges it is investigating the Guelph incident but has refused to comment on whether it is investigating allegations of other calls, including hard-totrack harassment calls traced to a North Dakota number often linked to credit card scams.
Elections Canada is now being inundated with complaints and reports of telephonic mischief from across the country.
Veteran election lawyer Jack Siegel, of Blaney Mcmurtry in Toronto, who often works for the Liberals, said nobody needs to wonder whether the agency will investigate.
“I would be very, very surprised other than they will take the whole array of calls for investigation and complaints of this happening elsewhere quite seriously,” he said. “I’ve got to question the resources they’ve got to bring to bear on it.”