Dewar dinged after CRTC robocalls ruling
NDP MP’S robocalls didn’t identify source
Ottawa Centre MP fined $7,000 for breaking telemarketing rules last year during campaign for NDP leadership.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has handed out a total of $17,000 in fines over illegal robocalls made last year on behalf of the NDP and Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar.
The CRTC said Dewar’s campaign for the NDP leadership failed to identity itself as the originator of automated calls polling party members on their choice of leader, over two days in February 2012.
“The calls did not specify at the outset that they were being made on behalf of Mr. Dewar’s campaign, nor did they include the call originator’s mailing address or a callback number,” the CRTC said in a press release.
The regulator said Dewar co-operated with the investigation and agreed to pay a $7,000 fine and commit to a compliance program. In a written statement, Dewar said he takes responsibility for the calls and has taken steps to not make the same mistake again.
“While this has been a common mistake by political campaigns, the CRTC has made it clear that automated calls must begin with a message identifying the person on whose behalf the call is made, including a mailing address and a local or tollfree number at which a representative of the originator of the message can be reached,” he said.
The robocalls were made by SolusOne, a voice-broadcasting firm hired by the Dewar campaign. Dewar said that the $7,000 fine would be paid out of his leadership campaign budget. The books are still open as the campaign works to meet Elections Canada’s filing requirements, Dewar said. He said the campaign ended up with a surplus after his loss to leader Thomas Mulcair and will not have to go into debt to pay the CRTC.
The CRTC levied a $10,000 fine against Toronto firm Strategic Communications Inc. over robocalls sent in January 2012 into the Quebec riding of St-Maurice–Champlain. The riding was represented at the time by Lise St. Denis, who was elected as a New Democrat but crossed the floor to the Liberals. The CRTC said the company also co-operated and agreed to the compliance measures.
The NDP had previously been fined by the CRTC over robocalls that gave the recipients the option of connecting with St. Denis’ constituency office to complain about her decision to join the Liberal caucus.
“There was no attempt to hide the client but we didn’t follow the correct procedure,” said Bob Penner, CEO of Strategic Communications. “To us, it’s an administrative matter. The CRTC procedures are not always crystal clear.”
Penner was presented as an expert witness on behalf of the Council of Canadians in a Federal Court challenge that sought to set aside the results of the 2011 election in six ridings. Penner swore an affidavit about the use of telephone calls to identify political supporters and rally them to vote.
The judge ultimately dismissed the application, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the election of six Conservative MPs, but did find there was evidence of a coordinated effort to suppress votes using data from the Conservative Party’s voter-tracking database.
The CRTC fines are based on violations of telemarketing rules, which require identification of the originator and sponsor of the call, and are unrelated to alleged violations of the Elections Act at issue in robocalls made during the 2011 election.
In a press release, Andrea Rosen, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, said the commission appreciated the co-operation it received from Dewar and Strategic Communications.
“We expect candidates who are running political campaigns and telemarketing service providers to put appropriate safeguards in place to ensure compliance with the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules,” the release said.
The NDP along with Liberal MP Frank Valeriote, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, Alberta’s Wildrose party, Liberal MP Marc Garneau, Conservative MP Blake Richards, Edmonton voter contact firm RackNine, and the Conservative Party of Canada have all been fined by the CRTC over the past 14 months for breaking the telemarketing rules with robocalls.
Valeriote was fined for automated calls in the days before the 2011 election that highlighted his Conservative opponent’s position on abortion. It was recorded by a volunteer using an assumed name but made no mention of the fact it came from the Valeriote campaign.
The Conservative Party’s fine related to robocalls into Saskatchewan earlier this year to rally opposition to proposed changes to the province’s federal riding boundaries that were expected to disadvantage the party’s candidates in 2015.
Elections Canada is continuing to investigate more than 1,300 complaints of robocalls made during the 2011 election that allegedly harassed voters or gave misleading information about polling locations.
A former Conservative Party campaign worker, Michael Sona, is so far the only person charged under the Elections Act over the “Pierre Poutine” robocalls that directed voters in Guelph to the wrong poll location. He is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing on August 29.
The federal government has promised to introduce changes to the Elections Act that would deal with new technologies like robocalling. The Conservatives were set to table the bill this spring but suddenly scrapped it.