Fraudulent robocalls ‘absolutely outrageous’: Mayrand
‘STRIKE AT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR DEMOCRACY’ Chief electoral officer tells committee there is reason to believe voters were purposely misdirected
Fraudulent robocalls pretending to come from Elections Canada are “absolutely outrageous” and should not be tolerated in a democracy, the chief electoral officer told parliamentarians Thursday.
“These are very serious matters that strike at the integrity of our democracy,” said Marc Mayrand.
“Whether it was organized or bigger or whatever, the fact that electors, at least that we know in Guelph (Ont.), were misdirected by calls falsely made on behalf of Elections Canada is absolutely outrageous.”
Mayrand suggested that parliament consider strengthening the penalties for breaches of the elections law and said that the fines and jail sentences under the current regime are “disproportionately light.”
Mayrand was addressing MPS on the Procedure and House Affairs Committee in his first public appearance since Elections Canada’s investigation into the calls was revealed last month.
He offered no details of the ongoing investigation into the 7,670 automated calls to Guelph voters launched by someone under the pseudonym “Pierre Poutine,” saying he couldn’t discuss matters under investigation by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
But Mayrand said Elections Canada has now received 800 “complaints alleging specific occurrences of improper or fraudulent calls” from people in about 200 ridings across the country, in 10 provinces and one territory. More than 40,000 people have contacted the agency to express concern, he said.
Mayrand couldn’t say how many of these complaints are founded but said the commissioner, William Corbett, is working on about 250 files.
“One thing I can say for our purpose today is that there (are) roughly 250 files open in the commissioner’s office. I would caution however not to draw too much in those things. Many complaints may be combined in a single file.”
Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski suggested to Mayrand that the 800 complaints worked out to only a few in each of Canada’s 308 ridings.
But Mayrand said only a small percentage of people complain about receiving calls, noting that the “Pierre Poutine” calls, sent with a disposable cellphone with a Quebec area code, resulted in only 70 complaints on or after election day.
“We know 6,700 calls were placed from the famous 450 number,” he said. “We know that many people don’t complain, obviously.”
Conservative MPS on the committee pressed Mayrand about the approximately 700,000 revisions his agency typically makes to the voter’s list during an election campaign, suggesting that errors might account for some of the erroneous calls that sent electors to the wrong polling locations.
New Brunswick Conservative John Williamson described the process of uploading names on the voter’s list to the party’s database and matching them with phone numbers and polling locations, and asked Mayrand if errors in the original data, especially early in the campaign, could have caused confusion.
Mayrand said he didn’t know about the Conservatives’ database and noted that the voter’s list provided by Elections Canada does not contain phone numbers.
“Eight hundred strikes me as potentially just a few errors per riding, in the grand scheme of the number of potential voters,” said Williamson. “What’s your sense of the number?”
Mayrand sharply responded that the calls pretending to come from his agency were not errors.
“We know in the case of ‘Pierre Poutine’ there (were) at least 6,700 calls placed,” he said. “What is
“What is troubling here is there were definitely calls placed on behalf of people, falsely.”
MARC MAYRAND
troubling here is there were definitely calls placed on behalf of people, falsely, including Elections Canada.”
Mayrand repeatedly asserted that there is reason to believe voters were purposely misdirected in some cases.
The Tories on the committee asked Mayrand several times about a robocall sent out by Guelph Liberal MP Frank Valeriote shortly before the election that attacked a Conservative candidate’s position on abortion. Valeriote has admitted his campaign should have been identified as the source of the ad but said it had been approved by Elections Canada.
Mayrand said his agency never pre-approves the content of messages and said the issue was whether the robocall was considered an advertisement or whether it was telemarketing, which is not regulated by the Elections Act. He said that will be for the commissioner to determine, as there have been two complaints filed over the call.
“I’m not aware there has been any ruling on this matter,” he said.
Mayrand also had harsh words for some media organizations that reported on “sweeping and vague allegations” that hadn’t been passed on to Elections Canada. He referred specifically to media reports alleging irregularities with the registration of voters in the Toronto ridings of Scarborough–rouge River and Eglinton-lawrence.
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn said his biggest concern was that sweeping and vague allegations were being made in the media.
“My biggest personal concern in all of this is that this circus, and it is a circus, is undermining” public faith in the election results.
In one particularly testy exchange, Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, the party’s pointman on the robocalls issue, claimed he had heard complaints from Conservative MPS and journalists who believe Elections Canada is leaking information.
“I can tell you there’s been harm,” he said.
“This is another case of vague allegations here,” Mayrand replied, to widespread laughter in the room. “Seriously, there’s no source leaking from Elections Canada, if that’s the allegation.”
Mayrand promised to report back to the committee on the matter before June. The committee unanimously also passed a motion to invite Corbett to appear.
Speaking with reporters after, Mayrand rejected the characterization of the media attention to the matter as a circus.
“I think it’s a serious matter,” he said. “I’m glad to see that it concerns Canadians, honestly. It’s essential to the way we govern ourselves, and it touches on the fundamentals of our democracy, how we elect our representatives. I can’t see anything more serious than that about democratic institutions.”
He refused to say whether or not he knows if the commissioner’s investigation has identified a suspect behind the “Pierre Poutine” robocalls in Guelph.
The testimony took place during the annual budget “lockup,” when most political reporters are incommunicado for the day, reading an embargoed copy of the budget.
The appearance was scheduled by committee chairman Joe Preston, a Conservative MP.
New Democrat David Christopherson suggested after the hearing that it was convenient for a government that is seeking to minimize attention to the robocall story.
“I don’t want to make a federal case of it, but it would seem to be an advantage to the government to have it happen today,” he said.