I'm still working on piecing together my Robofraud: Who's Who but I haven't had much free time as of late. Even now, sneaking this in is a bit of a rushed effort.
But man, so much has been going on as of late - hopefully you take time to check out my twitter feed @BCLaraby which (thanks to mobile devices) I have more time to play with -- incidentally, I tried using a voice app to do a blog on the run and... yeah, the less said about that the better.
Here's as many interesting articles as I can pull on short notice - if you've been somewhat out of the loop it basically breaks down like this:
Robofraud investigation updates have slowed to a crawl.
F-35 updates had dropped off the map until just recently (more on that soon)
and, yeah, more scandals.
Let's take a look at what's up:
Firstly, if you haven't seen Franke James' brilliant visual essay 'What is Harper afraid of?' you should go check that out right now here. Go ahead. I'll wait.
Also, take a moment to check out the #13Heroes campaign - the idea's to try and convince 13 CPC backbencher MPs to vote against Bill C-38 and help bring down the Harper government. It seems to be getting some traction, so take a look and perhaps consider writing some letters. There's a lot of discontent in CPC ranks as of late so this idea isn't as far-fetched as it may seem at first glance.
Where was I?
Oh, right: So apparently we invited UN Food Envoy Olivier De Schutter to come to Canada and have a look around. He ended up bitterly disappointed by his visit - 'blasting' Canada for the depth or our poverty and inequality. The CPC decided this would not stand and several MPs launched into an attack of their own, calling him 'ill-informed' and 'patronizing'. Which of course led the official opposition to demand apologies from said MPs.
The Long and short of it? He said that
“800,000 households are food insecure in Canada. This is a country that is rich, but that fails to adapt the levels of social assistance benefits and its minimum wage to the rising costs of basic necessities, including food and housing. Food banks that depend on charity are not a solution: they are a symptom of failing social safety nets that the Government must address."
In reply, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney essentially told him to shut up and that the UN should go 'look at bigger problems'.
“I think this is completely ridiculous,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said just before the envoy presented his report.
“Canada is one of the wealthiest and most democratic countries in the world. We believe that the UN should focus on development ... in countries where people are starving. We think it’s simply a waste of resources to come to Canada to give political lectures.”
If you're going to bed hungry tonight, folks, at least you know who to thank - you know, the ones who don't think you're starving enough.
Moving on...
Oh! Remember how the Harper Government had been caught keeping two separate sets of books for their F-35 purchase - one with numbers meant for easy public consumption, one with the actual, much higher, numbers to ensure proper budgeting? Well, apparently, the same goes for the controversial Budget Bill C-38.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the same man who blew the whistle on the F-35 debacle, has just come forward to say that the cuts that the public is being told about in C-38 are actually about twice as deep as we're being lead to believe. (Okay, seriously, this man deserves the Order of Canada and a freaking statue).
From the Article:
While the fight for information will continue over the coming weeks, the Parliamentary Budget Office was able to get new details for its report released Monday.
The report totally reframes the government’s spending cuts as starting in 2010. The Conservatives announced in this year’s budget they would cut $5.2 billion and 19,200 jobs over the next three years.
But while the last two budgets contained stimulus, they also had underlying long-term cuts that are now starting to be felt. The PBO reports that when the cuts are added together, the government is actually chopping twice as much — $10.8 billion from the budget and 26,800 jobs.
As a funny little aside - and by 'funny' I mean, 'not at all' - here's an example of why people are so upset about this budget bill -- besides the fact that it's not actually a budget bill:
Bill C-38 is approximately 450 pages long.
On ONE PAGE, on ONE LINE of this omnibus, this was found:
“The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act is repealed”
No explanation. Nothing. What else is hidden in there? What other, sneaky little landmines have been inserted into this bill that will fundamentally change our country with the stroke of a pen?
We'll soon find out - most likely, the hard way.
Finally:
The Conservative Party is trying to force-close the committee that's supposed to get to the bottom of the whole F-35 debacle (how it happened, who was involved, etc) after only about 9 hours worth of deliberation.
According to them:
"We have heard from the Auditor-General three times: once for the report as a whole, once for the beginning of the chapter, and once at the end of the chapter,” Mr. Saxton said. “We have heard from senior government officials at two different sets of meetings that detailed the government’s response. We have heard from the Parliamentary Budget Officer to compare his numbers versus others."
However, Liberal MP Gerry Byrne had a few words of his own to share:
“The government wants to shut this down, and for good reason,” Byrne said Tuesday. “They are very afraid of what is going to come out.”
Amazing how shirty the CPC can get when the Auditor General releases a report that
"found senior managers twisted rules, downplayed problems and withheld information about the stealth fighter program — failing to disclose before the last election, for example, that the planes would cost taxpayers at least $25 billion — about $10 billion more than what the government promised."
Needless to say, the Opposition has managed to get a toe-hold by claiming that 'shutting down the committee smacks of corruption'. There's a great read on the whole pushback here.
Anyways, I gotta run, but here are some quick hits before I go:
Tory politics exclusive, not inclusive
MP’s appeal of ruling on Etobicoke Centre puts focus on election machinery
Robo-calls warrant ‘huge investigation,’ former Harper aide says
And, one last thing - something fun and informative and completely unrelated to politics (one of the best Cracked articles I've ever read, actually):
6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America
Be safe out there, folks.
More to come soon.
Cheers,
Brandon
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Analyzing The Pieces Of Robofraud: Who's Who and What's What (Update #1)
Okay so here we are with what is turning out to be a series of 'Analyzing The Pieces of Robofraud' pieces. This one will also be updated over the days/weeks to come. I've decided to take all that wonderful data I compiled over the last week and start to put some good use to it.
Let me know what you think:
Christopher Rougier
Director of Voter Contact for the Conservative Party of Canada. Went on record to say that Prescott had been given access to the CIMS database. No mention of what clearance given. Records indicate
Separatist Street, Joliette , Quebec
Guelph , Ontario – One of
200 ridings across Canada
Edmonton
Thunder Bay
Prescoan
Let me know what you think:
Analyzing The Pieces of
Robofraud
Cast of Characters
Pierre Poutine aka Pierre
Jones
Alias created by whomever prepared and launched 6700+ robocalls acrossCanada
Alias created by whomever prepared and launched 6700+ robocalls across
Michael Sona
Aged 23, served as Burke’s Communications Director during election. Abruptly quit his job as Executive Assistant to Conservative MP Eve Adams the day the Robofraud story broke. Since then he’s basically been in hiding.
Chris Crawford
Now Director of Parliamentary Affairs for Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue, Crawford was a campaign worker for Marty Burke's election campaign in Guelph. At the time he was in charge of downloading CIMS data for use by canvassing teams and uploading voter-identificaton information gathered by volunteers knocking on doors and working the phone bank. He told Elections Canada Investigator Al Mathews that he heard Michael Sona speaking to campaign manager Ken Morgan about 'how Americans do politics' The conversation referred to calling non-supporters late at night, pretending to be Liberals or calling electors to tell them their polling stations had moved. He also mentioned that he did not think Sona was serious but claimed he told Sona that the comments were inappropriate.
Michael Sona, Chris Crawford and Andrew Prescott were good friends who spent time together on Provincial and Federal political campaigns through their association with the Guelph Campus Conservatives. In February, on his blog, Andrew Prescott wrote of Crawford: “He’s an amazing
organizer, and he’s THE BEST Canvassing Coordinator I’ve ever seen in action.”
Aged 23, served as Burke’s Communications Director during election. Abruptly quit his job as Executive Assistant to Conservative MP Eve Adams the day the Robofraud story broke. Since then he’s basically been in hiding.
Andrew Prescott
A self-proclaimed 'cellphone expert', active in both Provincial and Federal politics in the Guelph area. He works in information technology for a local hospital and writes a politics blog under the name "Christian Conservative". Originally listed as a 'volunteer', an article on March 6th detailed Prescott as the 'deputy campaign manager' for Marty Burke's election campaign. Out of the country on holiday for part of the campaign, he sent an email to Campaign Manager Ken Morgan and Michael Sona, providing contact information for RackNine.
A fan of Twitter, Prescott tweeted on April 30th, 2011 to share: "Anti-#CPC voter suppression phone calls currently underway in Guelph, suspecting #LPC #elxn41". He also shared the following with CBC Blogger Kady O'Malley: “must be REALLY BAD, voter suppression calls in Guelph AND Halton . . . anywhere else?" Incidentally, that same day, he also downloaded a list of numbers from the CIMS database; according to records given to Al Mathews by Christopher Rougier (see his entry below) Prescott downloaded three "Daemon Dialer" reports for Guelph - a list of phone numbers with voters identified as supporters or non-supporters. Also, according to Rougier, one of those reports "cannot be recovered from CIMS"
Matt Meier is on record as saying 'he's satisfied that Prescott was not involved in the Elections Canada calls', though Prescott is the only Burke campaign worker known to have held an account at RackNine. When payments to RackNine were not declared in Marty Burke's Financial records (as required by law), Prescott claimed he gave all RackNine expenses to the Campaign Manager and was not sure why they were not on the financial report sent to Elections Canada. He said that the RackNine calls went through (and were charged to) an account created by his own company, Prescoan. Why an account specifically created for the Marty Burke campaign was not used was not specified. Prescott claims “There was definitely no effort to hide anything or obscure anything.” but then later said that he paid for the RackNine bills himself and was reimbursed through the $1,100 he was paid (aka, not a 'volunteer').
An agreement signed on March 26th, 2011 shows that the Burke campaign had always intended to pay Prescott a $1,100 'honorarium' for 'General Labour'. While other workers had similar agreements in place and were reimbursed for costs they incurred during the campaign, there are no signs at all of expenses that Prescott incurred. He had planned to be interviewed by Al Mathews but changed his mind and cancelled at the last minute.
On March 6th, 2012, while combing through server logs, Matt Meier discovered that both the 'Pierre Jones' account and the 'Andrew Prescott' account had both accessed RackNine through the same IP address. Normally the 'Pierre Jones' account had been accessed through a proxy server (freeproxyserver.ca) that hid the IP, however, two days before the election both Pierre Jones and Andrew Prescott's accounts were found to not only have used the same proxy server to access RackNine, but both accounts, within 4 minutes of each other on election day (May 2nd, 2011), accessed RackNine through the IP 99.225.28.34. There's no proof that Prescott logged into these accounts himself.
A self-proclaimed 'cellphone expert', active in both Provincial and Federal politics in the Guelph area. He works in information technology for a local hospital and writes a politics blog under the name "Christian Conservative". Originally listed as a 'volunteer', an article on March 6th detailed Prescott as the 'deputy campaign manager' for Marty Burke's election campaign. Out of the country on holiday for part of the campaign, he sent an email to Campaign Manager Ken Morgan and Michael Sona, providing contact information for RackNine.
A fan of Twitter, Prescott tweeted on April 30th, 2011 to share: "Anti-#CPC voter suppression phone calls currently underway in Guelph, suspecting #LPC #elxn41". He also shared the following with CBC Blogger Kady O'Malley: “must be REALLY BAD, voter suppression calls in Guelph AND Halton . . . anywhere else?" Incidentally, that same day, he also downloaded a list of numbers from the CIMS database; according to records given to Al Mathews by Christopher Rougier (see his entry below) Prescott downloaded three "Daemon Dialer" reports for Guelph - a list of phone numbers with voters identified as supporters or non-supporters. Also, according to Rougier, one of those reports "cannot be recovered from CIMS"
Matt Meier is on record as saying 'he's satisfied that Prescott was not involved in the Elections Canada calls', though Prescott is the only Burke campaign worker known to have held an account at RackNine. When payments to RackNine were not declared in Marty Burke's Financial records (as required by law), Prescott claimed he gave all RackNine expenses to the Campaign Manager and was not sure why they were not on the financial report sent to Elections Canada. He said that the RackNine calls went through (and were charged to) an account created by his own company, Prescoan. Why an account specifically created for the Marty Burke campaign was not used was not specified. Prescott claims “There was definitely no effort to hide anything or obscure anything.” but then later said that he paid for the RackNine bills himself and was reimbursed through the $1,100 he was paid (aka, not a 'volunteer').
An agreement signed on March 26th, 2011 shows that the Burke campaign had always intended to pay Prescott a $1,100 'honorarium' for 'General Labour'. While other workers had similar agreements in place and were reimbursed for costs they incurred during the campaign, there are no signs at all of expenses that Prescott incurred. He had planned to be interviewed by Al Mathews but changed his mind and cancelled at the last minute.
On March 6th, 2012, while combing through server logs, Matt Meier discovered that both the 'Pierre Jones' account and the 'Andrew Prescott' account had both accessed RackNine through the same IP address. Normally the 'Pierre Jones' account had been accessed through a proxy server (freeproxyserver.ca) that hid the IP, however, two days before the election both Pierre Jones and Andrew Prescott's accounts were found to not only have used the same proxy server to access RackNine, but both accounts, within 4 minutes of each other on election day (May 2nd, 2011), accessed RackNine through the IP 99.225.28.34. There's no proof that Prescott logged into these accounts himself.
Christopher Rougier
Director of Voter Contact for the Conservative Party of Canada. Went on record to say that Prescott had been given access to the CIMS database. No mention of what clearance given. Records indicate
Marc Mayrand
Arthur Hamilton
Matt Meier
Michael Davis
Stephen Harper – Prime
Minister of Canada, well-known control freak.
Jenni Byrne – CPC Campaign
manager – says CPC was not involved – may have given the final go-ahead to Eve
Adams to accept Michael Sona’s resignation.
Marty Burke – Conservative
MP, ran against Frank Valeriote in Gueph.
Frank Valeriote – Liberal MP,
Marty Burke’s opponent in Guelph
Elections Canada
Al Mathews – Former RCMP
inspector
Tangentially Connected
Tom
Flanagan – wrote a book called Harper’s
Team that detailed the key role that RMG and its president Michael Davis
took in the ‘growing organizational ability of the new party’ ('new party' = when Canadian Alliance and PC merged). “RMG was so successful with an initial prospecting
experiment that the party very quickly gave all our voter-contact work to that
company,” Flanagan wrote. “CIMS provided a receptacle for the hundreds
of thousands of records generated by RMG’s large-scale calling programs.”
Eve Adams – New Conservative
MP – won her seat in 2011, appointed Minister of Veteran’s Affairs by Stephen
Harper.
Sue Campbell – Wife of Green
Party Candidate John Lawson, called Elections Canada to complain re:
Robocalls. Wrote down caller ID number
(a number in Quebec
Pat Martin – NDP MP, Attacked Matt Meier called him a
‘hillbilly’ ended up sued for $5Million for defamation and loss of business.
John McCallum –
Liberal MP, still waiting for a ‘smoking gun’
Michael Platz –
Former chairman (as of Jan 2012) of iMarketing Solutions group (RMG’s parent
company)
Brian Saunders – Director of
Public Prosecutions for Elections Canada
Locations of Note
Terms of note
701-509-8703 – A North Dakota
Phone number reported to Elections Canada by some Robocall complainants
450-760-7746 – The number
assigned to Pierre Poutine’s burner cell phone.
99.225.28.34 – IP Address
used to connect to RackNine and launch Robocalls on the day of the election. Both Prescott
CIMS – Constituent Information
Management System – Made for the Conservatives by RMG in 2003; tracks an
obscene amount of data about supporters and non-supporters alike. Is supposed to be tightly controlled from the
top-down with every move in the database logged externally. Elections Canada Investigators found spots of
‘missing data’ in regards to when a specific user logged into and downloaded
information from CIMS. This information should not be missing.
Items of Note
Burner Cell Phone –
Disposable Virgin Mobile cellphone purchased by Pierre Poutine with cash in Guelph , Ontario
Companies
Prescoan
RackNine
RMG
Xentel DM Inc. – Live-calling/Telemarketing
company. A 2007 TorStar investigation of Xentel’s
charity fundraising practices found that organizations founded with the help of
a Xentel board member got little of the money raised from donors. For instance,
the Childhood Asthma Foundation, for which Xentel did the telemarketing,
disbursed $1.65 million in research grants, but spent $6.8-million on
telemarketing and expenses.
iMarketing Solutions Group –
product of RMG and Xentel DM’s merger in 2010
publicly traded on the TSX Venture exchange
Other Notes:
- SUN Media’s website
originally broke Michael Sona as connected to the Robocalls case, running a
picture of Sona standing beside Harper.
- RackNine is not currently under
investigation by Elections Canada.
More to come, folks. I'll be fleshing this out over the next few days.
Cheers!
Brandon
Friday, May 04, 2012
Analyzing The Pieces of Robofraud (Update #7!)
If you were paying attention
to the News today, you would've seen this story hit the wire: Robocalls
IP address matches one used by Tory campaign worker: Elections Canada
Now this is an interesting article because it brings together some new and interesting pieces to the whole Robofraud scandal.
In fact, when it comes to Robofraud, Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher have basically been running a Master Class for the other news orgs on how to follow a story and dig deep.
That said, if you're coming to this new - or just want to be on the same page - here's a link to (and a breakdown of) every one of their RoboCall stories since the story broke.
If I'm missing any, please let me know and I'll include them:
Ready? Here we go - beware the Red Herrings. Also note: the first story has a TON of info with a lot of moving parts and dead ends, so, yeah, it's going to be a lot to process - in fact, this whole blog post is going to be a LONG HAUL, but I promise it'll be worth it.
That said, if you've been reading along, and just want to jump to the new stuff, here's:
Update
#4
Update #5
Update #6
Update #7
+ Fraudulent Phone Calls made preceeding and during May 2, 2011 election
+ 18 Ridings effected acrossCanada
+ Elections Canada Investigation launched inGuelph ,
Ontario
+ Calls traced back to RackNine - RackNine says it had no idea
+ Single telephone number showed up on all displays
+ Calls traced to a 'Burner Cell phone', registered to Area Code 450, belonging toJoliette , Quebec
+ "Using telephone billing records and Racknine server logs, Elections Canada investigators identified the Racknine account holder who sent out the calls" <-- huh
+ RackNine does not monitor outgoing calls made by customers through the automated service
+ "He estimates 10 million or more phone calls from about 200 accounts went out during the campaign."
Brandon
+ Investigators hope to glean information from the Internet Protocol (IP) address recorded by PayPal when he connected to the payment site to create his account. If the customer logged on to PayPal from a traceable address, Mathews could file another production order and get the account holder's name. But if Poutine logged into PayPal from a coffee shop or public Wi-Fi node, tracking him could be harder. However, Elections Canada investigators, who never comment on ongoing investigations, may already have connected the PayPal account to the real Poutine.
+ He also sent a public Twitter message to CBC blogger Kady O’Malley, speculating the Liberals’ internal polling “must be REALLY BAD, voter suppression calls in Guelph AND Halton . . . anywhere else?” <-- Given how forcefully the CPC have pushed the idea that the LPC was responsible for this, no matter how much the evidence suggests otherwise, these Tweets - TWO DAYS - before the election, is very telling. I see the seeds of a narrative/cover story being planted here.
Update #5
Update #6
Update #7
Otherwise, strap in, and let's do this:
Firm with Tory links traced to election day ‘robocalls’ that
tried to discourage voters - February 22, 2012
What Did We Learn? [Look how much was
known on Day 1 of the story breaking]
+ Fraudulent Phone Calls made preceeding and during May 2, 2011 election
+ On day of election, phone
calls reported that Polling Stations had been moved
+ 18 Ridings effected across
+ Elections Canada Investigation launched in
+ Calls traced back to RackNine - RackNine says it had no idea
+ Single telephone number showed up on all displays
+ Calls traced to a 'Burner Cell phone', registered to Area Code 450, belonging to
+ "Using telephone billing records and Racknine server logs, Elections Canada investigators identified the Racknine account holder who sent out the calls" <-- huh
+ RackNine does not monitor outgoing calls made by customers through the automated service
+ "He estimates 10 million or more phone calls from about 200 accounts went out during the campaign."
+ "He
said he knows whose account was used for the calls, but could not reveal the
owner, because of client confidentiality and concerns about interfering with
the investigation. He said it was someone “down East” — meaning Ontario or Quebec
+ RCMP's role is unclear but appears to be helping
Elections Canada
+ "The robocalls received in Guelph
+ "misdirecting voters were also reported in
ridings across the country: Kitchener-Waterloo, Kitchener-Conestaga,
London-West, Parkdale-High
Park
+ Liberal supporters in a dozen ridings, mostly in Ontario
+ Elections Canada
+ The Conservatives’ internal investigation is being
conducted by Arthur Hamilton, CPC's lead lawyer (investigated MP Helena Guergis
and Rahim Jaffer for the party in the “busty hookers” saga) <-- side note: Rahim Jaffer came up during Christian
Paradis Ethics probe.
+ “It seems [investigators] have identified somebody who
did it, knowingly,” said one Conservative who spoke on condition of anonymity.
+ In addition to Racknine’s work for Alberta
Conservative candidates in the federal election, Meier also has been involved
with the provincial Wildrose Party in Alberta
+ Mathews has travelled to Guelph
to interview people who received the calls on election day, including United Church
+ Long-distance phone bills obtained by the Citizen and
Postmedia show that the Guelph campaign called Matt Meier’s cellphone once at
11:08 a.m. and then the Racknine main number at 7:11 p.m.
+ Andrew Prescott, a volunteer with the Burke campaign,
used Racknine to send out calls warning supporters about fake Election Canada
messages.
+ “I was not involved in the illegal phone calls. I am a
legitimate user of Racknine’s services, and have been for several years,” he
said in an email. “I am a devoted believer in free and fair elections. I would
never partake in ANY illegal activities, and openly advocate for everyone to
play by the rules.” - Andrew Prescott
+ Meier confirmed Prescott ’s
story and said he
is satisfied Prescott was not involved in the
fake Elections Canada
+ Despite the dirty tricks phone calls, Valeriote won
the election in Guelph
+ If Mathews and the Commissioner of Canada Elections
find evidence of wrongdoing over the bogus Elections Canada calls, the case
could be referred to Director
of Public Prosecutions Brian Saunders, who would decide whether to lay
charges.
Did I miss anything else
relevant in this article? Let me know!
*Excellent point from commenter 'the
salamander' (reprinted from below):
"How interesting.. your timeline
approach captures a detail that resonates differently today.. Take another look
at this quote ..("He estimates 10 million or more phone calls from about
200 accounts went out during the campaign.") based on Elections Canada
And.. this does not take into account..
'campaign account's' served by other RoboCall or LiveCall service providers in Canada or foreign service bureaus in the United States
Update #2
Harper says party had `no knowledge' of fraudulent election
robocalls -
February 23, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn
here?
+ ``In this case, our party has no knowledge of these
calls,'' he told reporters in Iqaluit. ``It's not part of our campaign.'' -
Stephen Harper
+ ``The Conservative Party of Canada ran a clean and
ethical campaign and would never tolerate such activity,'' Also ``The party was
not involved with these calls and if anyone on a local campaign was involved
they will not play a role in a future campaign.'' - Jenni Byrne, CPC Campaign
Manager
+ The Conservatives appear to be preparing to cast blame
for the calls on a young campaign worker. The Sun website ran a
photograph of the worker, captioned ``accused fraudulent caller,'' standing
next to Harper at a campaign event. The party has not confirmed the name,
however.
+
Opposition MPs said, despite the denials, it was clear the Tories stood to
benefit from what appears to have been a coordinated effort to discourage
Liberal or
NDP supporters
from getting to the ballot box. <--
first notable mention that this wasn't just targeting Liberal callers.
+
The pre-recorded
calls received
in Guelph, Ont. claimed they were from Elections Canada and told voters their
polling stations had moved to a busy shopping mall in the city's downtown <-- no mention of Live Calls yet...
+ An investigator acting for the commissioner already
has tracked phone records back to an Edmonton
+ Racknine says it was unaware its voice-broadcasting
equipment was used for the calls and is co-operating with the investigation.
+ NDP MP Pat Martin said the calls were a ``disgusting''
interference in the democratic process. He said it was not credible to suggest
that the campaign of phoney calls on election day was coordinated by ``a couple of
hillbillies in Edmonton
+ Liberal MP John McCallum said his party doesn't have a
``smoking gun pointing at Stephen Harper'' but he encouraged the Conservatives
to co-operate with the investigation.
Harper denies Tory link to 'robocall' election scandal -
February 24, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn
here?
+ Anyone found responsible would face the full
consequence of the law, Harper said.
+ a Conservative-friendly media organization cited two
anonymous Conservative party sources and reported that a staff member who had
worked on the campaign of Guelph, Ont., Conservative candidate Marty Burke was
a person of interest to the investigation. <-- Sona
or Prescott
+ "The party was not involved with these calls and
if anyone on a local campaign was involved they will not play a role in a
future campaign." - Jenni Byrne, CPC campaign manager
+ The CPC is conducting its own internal investigation,
led by Toronto
+ Sun Media's website ran a photograph of a Burke
campaign worker, Michael Sona, standing next to Harper at what appears to be a
campaign event, claiming he was involved in the calls. The
photo is credited to the Prime Minister's Office.
+ Sona, 23, served as Burke's communications director
during the campaign and is now an executive assistant to rookie Conservative MP
Eve Adams on Parliament Hill. <--
someone got a promotion from the farm team to the big leagues [Guelph
+ Postmedia News contacted Sona earlier this week and
asked him a series of questions about the robocalls but he did not respond.
+ Sona was not in Adams '
office on Thursday afternoon. Asked if he would be returning, another staffer
said, "Maybe."
+ Bob Rae dismissed the naming of Sona as a tactic,
noting that he was identified only after the story surfaced. "Why would
they only find the guy today, after the story has come out? They've known about
this allegation a long time." Rae said the real blame rests with the
political culture Harper has created in the party.
"The prime minister has
created a Nixonian culture," Rae said. "This
stuff doesn't happen unless the boss lets it happen."
+ New Democrat MP Pat Martin said the calls were a
"disgusting" interference with the electoral process and said there
could be "no more heinous crime against democracy."
Update #3
Calls from fake Liberals hit more than a dozen ridings -
February 25, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn
here?
+
Live calls now introduced - calls targeting primarily Liberal supporters in
tightly contested ridings
+ 14 ridings identified - mostly closely fought
electoral districts in southern Ontario
+
Jewish voters in two ridings complained: received repeated phone calls at meal
time on the Saturday Sabbath. Another riding, where the Liberal candidate was
of Pakistani heritage, some said the callers mimicked a South Asian accent.
Many reported that callers would phone repeatedly, irritating the recipients,
and then speak to them rudely.
+ Volunteers on local Liberal campaigns, often amateurs,
were confused when they received complaints from supporters, and the party did
not counter the tactics or record instances in a systematic way.
+ Organizer of calls appears to have been working from
lists of Liberal supporters, which could have been compiled through
voter-identification calls that all the parties use
+ The Conservatives are particularly adept at tracking
voters in every riding using a centralized database called CIMS (Constituent
Information Management System), with the name and numbers of identified
Conservative supporters and opponents alike. Local campaigns are given access
to CIMS.
+ Call display often showed a North
Dakota telephone number - 701509-8703 - which Internet message
boards show is often used for fraudulent credit card scams.
+ Postmedia and the Citizen compiled a database of the
reported calls, using Elections Canada records of phone bank spending by
individual campaigns to seek a pattern that might show a correlation between a
particular company and the calls. There appears to be no such link.
+ There is no reason to believe that the local
Conservative campaigns knew that the harassing calls were being made.
Probe in 'robocall' scandal puts focus on Guelph riding -
February 28th, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn
here?
+
A court order executed on an Edmonton call
centre in November (2011) specifically refers to records related to the
campaign of Conservative candidate Marty Burke in Guelph , Ontario
+ Liberals and NDP have reported fraudulent calls in
dozens of ridings across the country. CPC has 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.
+ Production order executed on RackNine Inc. in Edmonton forced them to turn over all e-mails, billing
records and other correspondence between it and "the Conservative Party
general election campaign in Guelph Guelph
+ RackNine was to release records of calls that used the
number 450-760-7746 - the number that appeared on some Caller IDs on Election
Day. Sources say the number was assigned to a 'burner' cellphone, bought with
cash and used to call RackNine.
+ 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. <-- Disrupt the entire election - destroy democracy as
we know it - pay $5,000 in fines. MAYBE spend 5 years in jail (won't happen).
We practically begged for something like this to happen.
+ The production order was issued by Nov. 23, 2011 in Alberta
+ 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 production order makes clear that RackNine is not
under investigation.
+ Elections Canada
acknowledges it is investigating the Guelph Canada
+ Veteran election lawyer Jack Siegel, of Blaney McMurtry
in Toronto Saanich-Gulf Islands
Tories review tapes at Thunder Bay call centre as questions
grow over company’s checkered legal history -
March 2, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn
here? [Hold on Tight, this is a big one!]
+ Media reports say Elections Canada is broadening its
investigation of harassing telephone calls in Guelph
to include former employees of Responsive Marketing Group in Thunder Bay
+ RMG issued a statement late Wednesday night asserting
that it did not engage in voter suppression calls in the campaign and saying
the company would contact Elections Canada to work with the agency.
+ The CBC reported Thursday night that the Conservative
Party is reviewing tapes of every call made by the RMG before Elections Canada
investigators arrive next week. <-- This
is a huge revelation, the CPC should not have been allowed to be left alone
with potentially incriminating evidence - CBC broke the story
+ In 2003 RMG helped develop the Conservative
Party’s high-tech information management system [aka CIMS] after the Canadian Alliance merged
with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003.
+ In Harper’s Team, Tom
Flanagan’s book about the Conservatives’ rise to power, Flanagan describes the
key role that RMG and its president, Michael Davis, took in the growing
organizational ability of the new party, working with CIMS as it
developed. “RMG was so successful with an initial prospecting experiment
that the party very quickly gave all our voter-contact work to that company,”
Flanagan wrote.
+ “CIMS provided a receptacle for the hundreds of
thousands of records generated by RMG’s large-scale calling programs.” <-- Aka, the two were designed to
work Hand-in-hand from the ground up.
+ Elections Canada
+ Conservative sources say that the company does
millions of dollars worth of business with the party every year, working with
the Constituency Information Management System (CIMS), which tracks party
supporters and opponents across the country. <--
which makes sense considering how they work
+ “The Conservative Party has been extraordinarily
careful to ensure we use the best in the business,” he said. “And the best in
the business, in our view, is Responsive Marketing Group.” - Veteran
Conservative organizer Doug Finley
+ RMG merged in 2010 with Calgary-based Xentel DM Inc.,
and has since changed the company’s name to iMarketing Solutions Group. It is
publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange.
+ RMG responded to questions with an emailed statement from an unidentified spokesperson: "RMG operates independently,” also “RMG shareholders including the founder of RMG are the largest shareholding block in the new company. RMG’s senior executive team assumed the key management roles in the new group."
+ RMG responded to questions with an emailed statement from an unidentified spokesperson: "RMG operates independently,” also “RMG shareholders including the founder of RMG are the largest shareholding block in the new company. RMG’s senior executive team assumed the key management roles in the new group."
+ “100% of the calls made for the Conservative Party of
Canada were from contact centres located in Canada
+ Corporate filings suggest the federal election was a bonanza for RMG, giving it “a significant year over year revenue increase in its political fundraising and direct voter contact activities.” But the bump was balanced by what the firm politely called “increasing consumer resistance to telemarketing activities.” The company posted $24-million in revenues on the quarter ending June 2011, down slightly from the same period the year before.
+ Corporate filings suggest the federal election was a bonanza for RMG, giving it “a significant year over year revenue increase in its political fundraising and direct voter contact activities.” But the bump was balanced by what the firm politely called “increasing consumer resistance to telemarketing activities.” The company posted $24-million in revenues on the quarter ending June 2011, down slightly from the same period the year before.
+ Before merging with RMG, Xentel’s U.S. operations specialized in telephone charity
fundraising drives and operated call centres in Wisconsin ,
Colorado , Pennsylvania
and Florida
Specifically:
- In 2003, Abby Smith - a former
employee - brought a suit against Xentel alleging that she had been fired for
complaining that company officials had misused a notary seal for legal documents
and forged contracts with clients. She cited Florida Mohawk
College
+ In 2004, the state of Missouri
+ A 2007 TorStar investigation of Xentel’s charity
fundraising practices found that organizations founded with the help of a
Xentel board member got little of the money raised from donors. For instance,
the Childhood Asthma Foundation, for which Xentel did the telemarketing,
disbursed $1.65 million in research grants, but spent $6.8-million on
telemarketing and expenses.
+ In 2011, the Tennessee Division of Charitable Solicitations and Gaming hit Xentel with $720,000 in fines for charity solicitation calls. The agency said its investigators found 144 cases in which Xentel representatives violated the state law that requires professional fundraiser organizations to disclose that they are raising money on behalf of a charity.
+ In 2011, the Tennessee Division of Charitable Solicitations and Gaming hit Xentel with $720,000 in fines for charity solicitation calls. The agency said its investigators found 144 cases in which Xentel representatives violated the state law that requires professional fundraiser organizations to disclose that they are raising money on behalf of a charity.
+ In securities filings, the Xentel says it intends to
“vigorously defend itself against the imposition of this penalty.”
+ RMG President Michael Davis is the merged company’s
second-largest shareholder. He and Michael Platz served as co-CEOs for a time,
but Platz stepped down as co-CEO in January, 2012 and now serves as a director.
+ Conservative Party spokesman Fred Delorey said
Thursday that Platz had nothing to do with the recent campaign, and that RMG
did not use any American call centres.
+ Longtime key Conservative organizer Stewart Braddick is listed on RMG’s website as director
of the company’s Focused Direct Response program. Braddick is
also listed as director, Focused Direct Response, for the American company
Target Outreach Inc., which works for Republican campaigns. Sometime
recently, though, the page that included his bio was
wiped from the Target Outreach site. <--
another interesting, if tangential, article here
Update #4
Tories didn’t declare payments made to robocalls company, can’t
explain why -
March 6, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here? [Another big one!]
+ Payments made to RackNine - for automated calls on behalf of Marty Burke's Conservative Campaign inGuelph , Ontario
What new/interesting info did we learn here? [Another big one!]
+ Payments made to RackNine - for automated calls on behalf of Marty Burke's Conservative Campaign in
+ Elections
Canada
+ Andrew Prescott, the deputy campaign manager, said he
is co-operating with the investigation and handing over bills he received from
RackNine Inc. for a series of robocalls promoting Burke events during the
election. Prescott
+ Prescott
+ He said he used a RackNine account he
held through his own company, Prescoan, to
place the automated calls announcing Burke campaign events. Prescott
+ He said he then submitted invoices to the campaign for
these costs. “I gave them to the campaign manager,” Prescott
+ There is no record of these expenses anywhere in the
Burke campaign return, however.
+ Elections Canada is also investigating records at
PayPal, an online payment and money transfer service, the Globe
and Mail has reported, and is
using a court order to ask the company to hand over information as a part of
the Guelph investigation.
+ Ken Morgan, a former candidate for city council in Guelph
+ Failing to declare campaign expenses is
a breach of the Elections Act. The detailed expense claims
submitted to the Burke campaign included receipts for everything from local
advertising costs, gasoline and pizza for campaign workers. But the Burke
campaign’s accountant, Abdul-Qayum Ali, said he never received any invoices for
RackNine.
+ The campaign’s bills typically were given by staff to
Morgan and then passed on to him, said Ali who, as official agent, was
responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the expense report. Ali said he
was contacted by Elections Canada last week and asked if there were any other
invoices he hadn’t submitted to the agency. There were not, he said.
+ A sworn statement filed by Elections Canada
investigator Al Mathews lists 31 calls made to RackNine from four phones
associated with the Burke campaign to RackNine, including two
on election day. Most of the calls were to a customer service
log-in number.
+ In Mathews’ sworn statement, he writes that it is
“reasonable to conclude that the absence of an expense report . . . is
inconsistent with the pattern” of the calls.
+ Prescott would not say how much the
various calls cost, but, before the robocalls story first broke last month,
Prescott told the Ottawa Citizen he had paid for RackNine bills himself and was
reimbursed by the campaign through the $1,100 he was paid. But an
agreement signed by Morgan and Ali on March 26, at the beginning of the
campaign, shows Prescott was always to be paid $1,100 as an honourium for
providing “general labour” on the campaign. <--
General Labour - yeah, lots of heavy lifting involved. Again, not obscuring
things at all.
+ Other campaign workers who had similar agreements in place
were reimbursed for the costs they incurred during the course of the campaign. But
there is no sign of any expenses Prescott Prescott
+ Prescott
+ In a blog post in July, not long after the
election, Prescott
+ The Guelph Mercury reported last week that
Elections Canada, which
started the investigation in May [of 2011],
interviewed campaign worker Michael Sona last Tuesday for the first time.
<-- Somone's slow on the draw. Or
particularly unmotivated.
+ He was first associated with this story
when Sun TV reported that senior Conservatives believed he was a person of
interest to the investigation. Sona soon resigned from his job working for
Conservative MP Eve Adams. <-- just
a brief reminder for those who may have forgotten who he is.
+ After Defence Minister Peter MacKay suggested
Sona was responsible for the misdirection in Guelph
+ In
Question Period on Monday, the Conservatives repeatedly demanded the Liberals
release their own call records, while repeatedly refusing to do the same.
+ On Sunday, Conservative campaign chairman
Guy Giorno said he hopes investigators get to the bottom of it. “I wish
Godspeed to Elections Canada and the RCMP investigators,” he told CTV. “We want
them to get to the bottom of this and let’s hope the full weight of the law is
applied to any and all.”
+ In Mathews’ sworn statement, he describes an interview
with Central Poll Supervisor Laurie Rotenburg, who was running the polls at the
Old Quebec Street Mall in Guelph when 150 to 200 deceived voters showed up to
vote. “He observed that many of the misdirected voters responded with
anger that a dirty trick had been played,” Mathews wrote. “Many
were upset. Some electors just stormed out of the polling location. Several
ripped up their Voter Information Card.” <--
So much for those in Parliament (I believe credit goes to Mr. Del Mastro here)
who said that there's no evidence that even one person was tricked by these
calls. Tried to find the link of Del
Robocalls suspect left digital trail that could lead to real identity of ‘Pierre Poutine’ - March 6, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Apparently 'Pierre Poutine' Spoke to Matt Meier of RackNine one time - when he first opened an account a few days before the May 2nd election. He used an alias [Article doesn't say what it was] but gave a real Street Address inJoliette , Quebec
Robocalls suspect left digital trail that could lead to real identity of ‘Pierre Poutine’ - March 6, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Apparently 'Pierre Poutine' Spoke to Matt Meier of RackNine one time - when he first opened an account a few days before the May 2nd election. He used an alias [Article doesn't say what it was] but gave a real Street Address in
+ “I know what the place looks like,” he said. “It looked
very much like this was a legitimate person making a legitimate
call." “It could very well be this is the exact address and they just
haven’t charged the guy yet.” <-- when
did he question the validity of the address though? Did he get the phone
call and say 'that was suspicious' and looked it up? Or after the investigation
started?
+ The customer’s account with the online payment service
PayPal, used to fund the voice broadcasts, also checked out, Meier said, though
he declined to provide the name the customer gave or offer further details
about the conversation because he doesn’t want to jeopardize the ongoing
Elections Canada investigation.
+ Elections Canada Guelph
+ In court documents filed in Edmonton
+ Records produced by Bell
Canada , Virgin Mobile’s parent,
showed that the outgoing calls made with the phone came from Guelph
and sources close to the investigation say the “burner phone” in question was
purchased not in Joliette , but at a convenience
store in Guelph
+ The records Mathews obtained from RackNine were listed
in a December court filing in Alberta pierres
+ Mathews also obtained information for three PayPal
accounts, the Dec. 19 filing says.
An Ontario
+ A source close to the investigation says the
PayPal payment to RackNine was made using a prepaid gift credit card that
could, like the “burner” cellphone, prove difficult to track down.
+ Investigators hope to glean information from the Internet Protocol (IP) address recorded by PayPal when he connected to the payment site to create his account. If the customer logged on to PayPal from a traceable address, Mathews could file another production order and get the account holder's name. But if Poutine logged into PayPal from a coffee shop or public Wi-Fi node, tracking him could be harder. However, Elections Canada investigators, who never comment on ongoing investigations, may already have connected the PayPal account to the real Poutine.
+ Elections Canada
+ Veteran Liberal election lawyer Jack Siegel said he has
never seen anything like this.
“They are taking it very very
seriously,” he said. “This is not a typical investigation as carried out by the
commissioner’s office in the past."
+ Siegel was the lawyer for Anthony Rota, the
former Liberal MP who lost Nipissing-Timiskaming by 18 votes on election day.
He said that if enough voters report that they were dissuaded from voting by
deceptive calls, a judge might order a byelection. “Now you have
something that could conceivably be relevant to the seat distribution in the
House of Commons,” he said. “It’s one seat, but my God. It’s a seat. It’s who
represents people.”
+ The Conservatives have suggested that the
Liberals may be responsible for misdirecting their own supporters. <-- yeah. That's what happened...
Digital trail may lead to mysterious 'Pierre Poutine' - March 7, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Nothing, this is pretty much a re-print of the last article but cut down for space.
Tory campaign worker in Guelph tweeted robocall warning two days before election - March 9, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ On the day “Pierre Poutine” activated the burner cellphone used to launch his robocall blitz on voters in Guelph, Ont., Andrew Prescott, deputy campaign manager to Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, tweeted on April 30, “Anti-#CPC voter suppression phone calls currently underway in Guelph, suspecting #LPC #elxn41” — referencing the Twitter shorthand for the Liberal Party of Canada and the 41st general election.
+ Prescott, a self-described cellphone expert, followed up a few minutes later with another tweet claiming that these phone calls were “using spoofed Caller-ID of Burke campaign. I ‘wonder’ who it could be . . .” Later, Prescott tweeted about these alleged calls again, saying “#LPC internal polling must be BAD, considering the dirty voter suppression calls underway in Guelph . . .”
Digital trail may lead to mysterious 'Pierre Poutine' - March 7, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Nothing, this is pretty much a re-print of the last article but cut down for space.
Tory campaign worker in Guelph tweeted robocall warning two days before election - March 9, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ On the day “Pierre Poutine” activated the burner cellphone used to launch his robocall blitz on voters in Guelph, Ont., Andrew Prescott, deputy campaign manager to Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, tweeted on April 30, “Anti-#CPC voter suppression phone calls currently underway in Guelph, suspecting #LPC #elxn41” — referencing the Twitter shorthand for the Liberal Party of Canada and the 41st general election.
+ Prescott, a self-described cellphone expert, followed up a few minutes later with another tweet claiming that these phone calls were “using spoofed Caller-ID of Burke campaign. I ‘wonder’ who it could be . . .” Later, Prescott tweeted about these alleged calls again, saying “#LPC internal polling must be BAD, considering the dirty voter suppression calls underway in Guelph . . .”
+ He also sent a public Twitter message to CBC blogger Kady O’Malley, speculating the Liberals’ internal polling “must be REALLY BAD, voter suppression calls in Guelph AND Halton . . . anywhere else?” <-- Given how forcefully the CPC have pushed the idea that the LPC was responsible for this, no matter how much the evidence suggests otherwise, these Tweets - TWO DAYS - before the election, is very telling. I see the seeds of a narrative/cover story being planted here.
+ But it was not
until two days later, on election day, that reports of fraudulent Elections
Canada calls began to flood in, prompting the agency to send out a news release
warning electors to ignore the fake calls. More than 100 voters misled by
the fake robocalls showed up at the Quebec Street Mall polling station, where
some of them ripped
up their voter IDs in anger.
+ Prescott
+ Asked
about the tweets on Thursday, Prescott
+ The National Post’s John Ivison reported Thursday that Meier told him he helped trace the
robocaller by tracking down the Guelph Rogers Hi-Speed Internet address that he
used to sign up for his account.
+ Meier says Pierre
Poutine signed up as 'Pierre Jones' and claimed to be a commerce
student at the University
of Ottawa
+ The Ottawa Citizen was unable to find any
evidence of a Pierre Jones enrolled in commerce at the University of Ottawa
Update #5
Canadians may not know real ID of `Pierre Poutine' until probe
ends -
March 12, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ If Pierre Poutine walked into Elections Canada's office on
Monday with a written confession, we might not know about it for months or
years, until after the investigation concludes. There were rumours that a
key suspect did spill the curds on the affair on Monday, but Elections Canada
would not confirm this.
+ ``The normal process in an investigation is that if charges are
resulting, that's normally when evidence in the case is presented to the
director of public prosecution.'' - Diane Benson
+ Sources say that the news that an IP address for a home in Guelph
+ The commissioner could enter into a compliance agreement that
requires a written accounting by the person who confessed that there had been a
breach of the rules, and an undertaking to not do it again. <-- this would be the most boneheaded decision since the
idea to let the CPC plea bargain out of those In-And-Out charges
+ A more
likely result in this situation, however, is that the commissioner would refer
his findings to Director of Public Prosecution Brian Saunders for a decision on
whether to lay charges. <-- At this
point one would hope that this isn't really a 'decision' process.
+ Corbett began his investigation of the ``in-and-out''
scandal over the Conservatives' financing of the 2006 election in the spring of
2007. But it was not until June 2009 that he referred the charges to Saunders.
+ Saunders'
office cited the complexity of the case and took another 20 months before it
announced charges against the party and four senior Conservative officials,
including two sitting senators.
+ The
matter did not conclude until last November when the party pleaded guilty and
charges against the officials were dropped - more than five years after the
2006 election. Two more elections were held while the case remained unresolved.
<-- this is precisely why the public
needs to continue to light a fire under EC's ass, keep the pressure on all
involved. We demand answers.
+ Elections Canada
Tory staffer fingered by own party as ‘Pierre Poutine’ stunned by allegations -March 14, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Sona told co-workers on Parliament Hill he was stunned to learn he’d been named in connection with fraudulent calls in theOntario
riding of Guelph
+ He had no idea his name had been linked to the scandal until he heard it on the Sun News TV channel - currently staffed by many former CPC employees (The channel was the first to tie Sona’s name to the calls). After the TV report, he offered his resignation in writing toAdams because of the
media attention he knew would follow. Sona has retained legal counsel but
the identity of his lawyer is not known.
Tory staffer fingered by own party as ‘Pierre Poutine’ stunned by allegations -March 14, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Sona told co-workers on Parliament Hill he was stunned to learn he’d been named in connection with fraudulent calls in the
+ He had no idea his name had been linked to the scandal until he heard it on the Sun News TV channel - currently staffed by many former CPC employees (The channel was the first to tie Sona’s name to the calls). After the TV report, he offered his resignation in writing to
+ Elections Canada
+ Adams
initially refused his resignation, a source said, but after Adams
spoke to Jenni Byrne, the Conservative Party’s campaign manager in last year’s
election, it was accepted. The party denies that Byrne played any role in
Sona’s departure. “It’s not true,” said spokesman Fred DeLorey in an
email on Tuesday.<-- so... Jenni Byrne essentially
gave the OK to have Sona resign?
+ Anonymous
Conservatives have repeatedly singled out Sona alone among a group of workers
on the campaign of Guelph candidate Marty Burke, but a source says Sona had no
reason to believe Elections Canada was interested in him until he was named by
unidentified senior
Tories in
a report on Sun News Network the day the story broke. <-- Was it just Jenni Byrne who threw Sona under the bus?
Who did she talk to and get clearance from? That will be telling
information in this case.
+ A
CTV News report cited unnnamed Conservatives saying Sona had owned up to the
calls amid reports that the investigation had traced an Internet Protocol
address used by “Poutine” to a home in Guelph
+ A
source close to Sona said Tuesday that he did not talk to investigators on Monday.
“He never spoke to Elections Canada yesterday, so whoever spoke to
Elections Canada is not him,” the source said. “Whoever did, and confessed,
it’s not him.” Postmedia News and the Citizen have learned that Sona has
not met with Elections Canada this week and has no future meetings planned.
+ A source close the
investigation said Tuesday that it seems unlikely that a 23-year-old, acting
alone, would have been able to pull off the fairly complicated caper —
recording a bilingual, legitimate-sounding message purportedly from Elections
Canada, setting up a screen of two false identities using a prepaid cellphone
and credit card, and expertly covering his electronic tracks.
+ Meanwhile Prime
Minister Stephen Harper brushed aside demands Tuesday for an independent
judicial inquiry or royal commission into the robocalls affair, saying that
Elections Canada had already begun a probe. <--
because having two independent investigations
into the largest betrayal of the Democratic process in Canadian history would
just be silly. And nobody wants that.
+ Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal also told
the House that the majority Conservative government will “act on” a motion that
its MPs supported the previous evening to introduce legislation within six
months, extending the investigative powers of Elections Canada. <-- and how's that going, I wonder?
Confession from campaign worker is not forthcoming -
March 14, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Most of this is just a rehashing of the previous article, but one point is interesting:: The NDP wants an independent inquiry, while the Liberals are calling for something even more ambitious - a royal commission. Both parties want the inquiry to have strong powers to subpoena documents, compel witnesses to testify about the robocalls and recommend how to clean up the electoral system.
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Most of this is just a rehashing of the previous article, but one point is interesting:: The NDP wants an independent inquiry, while the Liberals are calling for something even more ambitious - a royal commission. Both parties want the inquiry to have strong powers to subpoena documents, compel witnesses to testify about the robocalls and recommend how to clean up the electoral system.
Investigators strike information ‘gold’ in Elections Canada
robocalls probe: source - March 15, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ The investigation has broadened and intensified since the robocalls story broke last month: On Thursday (March 15, 2012), Marc Mayrand, the chief electoral officer, issued a statement promising to get to the bottom of allegations of “fraudulent or improper calls.”
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ The investigation has broadened and intensified since the robocalls story broke last month: On Thursday (March 15, 2012), Marc Mayrand, the chief electoral officer, issued a statement promising to get to the bottom of allegations of “fraudulent or improper calls.”
+ “Over 700 Canadians from
across the country have informed us of specific circumstances where they
believe similar wrongdoing took place,” the statement said. “I appreciate the
interest that Canadians have shown in this matter and thank them for their
continued collaboration.” - Marc Mayrand
+ Mayrand also warned
against “drawing conclusions based on possibly inaccurate and incomplete
information,” and offered to appear before a parliamentary committee to discuss
the investigation.
+ Of the 31,000
submissions received, it turned out that the majority of those “contacts” were
the result of an online petition calling for a public inquiry. But some
of the information provided to the agency is “gold,” according to a source
close to the investigation, and some complainants have reported followup calls
from investigators.
+ At least one other
Elections Canada investigator, Tim Charbonneau, has joined former RCMP
inspector Al Mathews, who is leading the probe. They have interviewed witnesses
beyond Guelph
+ According to a CBC
investigation voters who
revealed they would not be voting Conservative received robocalls sending them
to fake polling stations. The report suggests the misleading phone calls
relied on data gathered by the Conservative Party.
+ Court documents
filed by Mathews in September said call logs showed 281 people called the
prepaid “burner” cellphone used to launch the fraudulent Guelph
+ Mathews said a
voice-broadcasting expert told him that robocalls typically solicit a 1%
callback rate. “On that basis, he was of the view that the Elections Day calls
to electors must have numbered in the thousands, even assuming a significantly
higher call back rate by upset electors,” Mathews said. <-- "voice-broadcasting expert" = Meier?
+ Elections Canada Guelph
+ Specifically:
Eduardo Harari, a volunteer on Ken Dryden’s Liberal campaign in York
Centre, has told Elections Canada that he received eight
bilingual fake Elections Canada
+ Charbonneau has
also interviewed Peggy Walsh Craig, who recently told the Toronto Star that she
received a similar fake Elections Canada robocall in the northern Ontario
Conservative candidate denies his campaign was involved in
robocalls -
March 20, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
Update #6What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ ``I have absolutely no knowledge of
who made such calls or how and why they were made,'' said Marty Burke. ``I do
not believe there is any connection between these calls and any member of our
hard-working, dedicated campaign team. I would be shocked to find out
otherwise." Burke says a week ago he volunteered to make a witness
statement to Elections Canada to share what ``little information'' he had about
the matter
+ Conservatives in Ottawa suggest that whatever happened in Guelph
+ The robocall in Guelph Guelph
+ Burke's statement
dwells at length on another robocall, one made a few days before the election
by Valeriote's campaign, anonymously attacking Burke for favouring legal
restrictions on abortion. The call did not identify who paid for it, as
Elections Canada rules require. The woman who recorded it apparently used a
false name and the number provided for callers was also false. <-- not the brightest of moves, in hindsight. Ah,
hindsight.
+ The call ``appears to
have broken several EC laws as well as CRTC laws,'' says Burke in his
statement. ``For this reason, I filed a formal complaint requesting that
Elections Canada investigate this matter.''
Burke says Elections Canada, which
typically refuses to confirm investigations, is looking into Valeriote's
robocall as well as the ``Pierre Poutine'' call.
+ The Globe and Mail has reported that
Prescott
+ Several key members of Burke's
campaign team have yet to speak out about the calls. Neither his campaign
manager, Ken Morgan, nor the head of the local Conservative riding association,
John White, have responded to repeated requests for comment. It is not known if
either have been contacted by Elections Canada.
+ Chris Crawford, a Burke campaign
worker who now serves as an aide to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter
Penashue, has also not returned repeated calls. Postmedia News and the Ottawa
Citizen have been unable to obtain comment from anyone in Penashue's office.
The minister's press secretary, Cory Hann, has not responded to repeated calls.
+ Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail also
reported Tuesday the identity of a key employee of RackNine, the Alberta company that was used to send out the misdirecting
robocalls in Guelph
Robocalls
probe extends to Tory headquarters - April 16th, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here? [Another long one!]
What new/interesting info did we learn here? [Another long one!]
+ Elections Canada
investigators have been asking questions about the actions of staff at
Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa Edmonton
+ "As you know, we have
proactively reached out to Elections Canada and offered to assist them in any
way we can," party spokesman Fred DeLorey said Monday night. "That
includes handing over any documents or records that may assist them." <-- 'any' but not 'all'... interesting choice of words.
And who 'decides' what will assist EC?
+ Investigators are combing over access
logs for the Conservatives' Constituent Information Management System (CIMS) to
determine who downloaded a list of phone numbers for non-Conservative
supporters in Guelph Guelph
+ Non-supporter data are entered into
CIMS by volunteers collecting information during neighbourhood canvasses and by
phone bank workers contracted by the party.
+ CIMS is known for its tight access
controls and detailed event logging and retains a digital record of every
transaction on the database. Interns and volunteers have been
sanctioned when the logs showed they had looked up Prime Minister Stephen
Harper's listing, for example.
+ The investigators inquired about CIMS
logs for one particular user in the party's headquarters. The logs show blanks
between this person's CIMS logon and logoff on the day the Guelph
+ Also of interest is a call to RackNine
made on May 1, from a number in the Conservative party war room in Ottawa Albert Street Ottawa , but was forwarded to the
party's south Ottawa
+ Rougier was a key member of the target
seat team, working directly under campaign manager Jenni Byrne, acting as a
liaison with vendors providing telephone services to the campaign. There
is no indication Rougier was involved in the Poutine scheme, only that Mathews
was inquiring why his phone line would be used by someone to place a call to
RackNine. <-- where have we heard the phrase
'target seat team' before?
+ Another party official who made calls to
RackNine, Rebecca Rogers, worked on Harper's cross-country tour and used the
voice-broadcasting service to arrange robocalls to promote campaign events.
Other calls — from the offices of Conservative MPs Chris Warkentin and Julian
Fantino — were made to
the same line to
record robocalls promoting events or to get out the vote.
+ The call from Rougier's phone to RackNine
is the only one the party has failed to explain in detail to reporters, in
spite of repeated requests. "He called to set up legitimate
dials," DeLorey said last week. "As I said in the past, we used
RackNine for legitimate calls during the campaign."
+ That EC is making inquiries about
activities in the CPC war room appears to conflict with the conclusion of an
internal probe, led by Conservative party lawyer Arthur Hamilton.
Hamilton, a veteran who handled the party's legal business in the In
and Out elections-spending affair and the Helena
Guergis scandal, is said to have concluded that no party workers outside of
Guelph
+ Hamilton
launched his investigation after Mathews flew to Edmonton Hamilton Hamilton
+ One source says RackNine owner Matt
Meier transferred the same electronic files to the CPC that he provided to
EC. Meier said in a Twitter message in March that he had transferred
nothing to Ottawa
+ Meier's lawyer, Justin Matthews,
would not say Monday what files his client gave to the party, and said his
client "hopes that the investigation successfully identifies who committed
these acts, in short order."
+ Investigators have been asking people
connected with the affair about the role of the central party office.
+ Conservatives in Guelph
+ "Pierre Pierre Pierre
Tories,
call-bank company reject affidavit alleging voter misdirection -
April 18, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ The CPC and RMG, its main call-bank company rejected as false a sworn affidavit from Annette Desgagne, a RMG former phone worker, who alleges she and her colleagues were concerned they had misdirected voters in the days leading up to the recent federal election.
Liberal, NDP supporters targeted for calls, pollster says -
April 24, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ The CPC and RMG, its main call-bank company rejected as false a sworn affidavit from Annette Desgagne, a RMG former phone worker, who alleges she and her colleagues were concerned they had misdirected voters in the days leading up to the recent federal election.
+ In an affidavit released April 18,
2011, Ms. Desgagne said in the last few days before the May 2 election, scripts
for callers at the Responsive Marketing Group’s Thunder Bay phone bank
instructed them to identify themselves as calling from the “Voter
Outreach Centre” and
tell voters about last-minute changes Elections Canada had made to
polling stations. <-- Even though EC expressly told parties not to contact voters themselves regarding polling changes.
+ One caller, Desgagne claimed, identified
himself as calling from Elections Canada.
+ Desgagne’s affidavit was filed as
part of a series of court challenges launched by the Council of Canadians. The
group alleges fraudulent phone calls in the last election affected the outcome
of votes in seven ridings and wants the Federal Court to set the results
aside. The CPC dismissed the litigation as an attempt by the losers to
change the outcome of the election.
+ “This is a transparent attempt to
overturn certified election results simply because this activist group doesn’t
like them,” said party spokesman Fred DeLorey in an emailed statement.
+ RMG issued its own statement, saying
it called only Conservative supporters in the days leading up to the vote and
that the scripts used by call workers clearly indicated they were calling on
behalf of the party. “(It) would make no sense for RMG to give identified
Conservative supporters incorrect voting information,” the company said.
+ Desgagne began working in the Thunder Bay
+ One woman from Winnipeg
+ RMG claims that its callers did not make
change-of-location calls, but, rather, made get-out-the-vote (GOTV) calls that
included polling address confirmations.
+ “The scripts indicated that
Elections Canada had changed ‘some’ polling locations — not that ‘their’ (that
individual’s) location had changed,” the company said. “The caller then
asked the voter if they knew their location and, if that location was different
from what the caller had on screen, informed them of the onscreen location.” <-- again, explicitly stated by EC, no party was to
contact voters about polling changes. None. Nada. These calls, even under the
pretenses RMG stated, should not have ever happened. No excuse.
+ One of the results being challenged by
the Council of Canadians is the Northern Ontario
riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming, where Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota lost to
Conservative Jay Aspin by only 18 votes. Desgagne said in her statement
that she specifically remembers making calls about a poll in
Nipissing-Timiskaming because she had trouble pronouncing the name when
speaking to voters.
+ The council has obtained a statement
from EC’s lawyer stating that of the ridings involved in the litigation, only
one — on Vancouver Island — had polling
stations moved. That suggests that, at the least, the information
Desgagne provided about changing polling locations in Nipissing-Timiskaming was
incorrect. It also casts doubt on the Conservatives’ contention that calls
misdirecting voters may have been the result of honest mistakes. <-- yes, honest mistakes in direct violation of what they
were told not to do.
+ Desgagne
said she also heard other RMG call workers raising concerns about the poll
change calls. “Many callers were still indicating during our breaks that
listeners were telling them the change-of-address information we were giving
was wrong.”
+ She says she told a supervisor she was
worried she was sending people to the wrong locations, but was told to stick to
the scripts provided. “Our concerns were ignored and we had to keep
reading and repeating the same scripts about changes of address for polling
stations made by Elections Canada.”
+ Desgagne also said she heard another
RMG call centre employee claim to be phoning from Elections Canada. She claims
she told him, “Dude, you’re not from Elections Canada.”
+ Elections Canada Canada
+ When Desgagne heard reports on the
radio about misleading calls, she said, “I became very concerned that I was
participating in something that involved giving voters wrong
information. “My internal radar went off. I wrote down what I could recall
from the script I was asked to read about Change of Address Calls and I
arranged for the information to go to the RCMP.”
+The Council of Canadians is using a
rarely-used provision of the Elections Act that allows any elector to ask a
court to set aside the result in his or her riding if there is convincing
evidence of illegal or fraudulent activity that changed the
outcome. They're focused on closely-contested seats where there have been
reports of alleged voter suppression calls.
+ So far, none of the winning candidates in
the seven ridings have filed their statements of defence. Conservative Party
lawyer Arthur Hamilton has suggested in an interview with the Toronto Star that
the claims will not withstand legal scrutiny.
+ The council launched its legal
challenges in Federal Court after the Citizen and Postmedia News reported on an
Elections Canada investigation into robocalls made in Guelph
+ On April 17, 2012 the New Democrats
seized on the report of the apparent gap in data logs [see previous
article], and accused the Conservatives of erasing electronic records,
comparing the missing information to a mysterious gap in audiotapes in the
Watergate scandal. In reaction, the Conservatives sent an email to
supporters denying that Elections Canada is investigating the party. “Contrary to media reports,
the Conservative Party of Canada is not under investigation for what went on in
Guelph
+ Conservatives point
out that the party made millions of voter-identification and get-out-the-vote
calls during the campaign, and suggest that misdirecting calls may be explained
by bad data, caller error or incorrect recollections by the people who received
the calls. <-- The long and short of it:
You're all lying. All of you. No possible way any of the 800 complaints
registered have any merit whatsoever. Yeah, which seems more plausible to you?
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ A poll, conducted
April 13-19 by Ekos Research Associates, found that Liberal, NDP and Green
party supporters in seven ridings -- where the Council of Canadians is
seeking new elections -- were much more likely to report receiving a call
directing them to the wrong polling station than CPC supporters, or opposition
supporters in other ridings.
+ The pattern is “highly statistically
significant and we can say with confidence that this is not an artifact of
chance,” Ekos president Frank Graves writes in an affidavit filed as part of
the Council of Canadians’ legal challenge of the results in seven closely
fought seats.
+ Conservative spokesman Fred DeLorey
attacked Graves ’ reputation, saying the
pollster is a past Liberal Party donor, and pointed to his controversial
remarks during a CBC panel interview that advised the Liberals to stir up a
“culture war” to win votes. “I can’t believe anyone would ever take him
seriously,” DeLorey said in an email. <-- and
DeLorey's party stands to gain nothing by attacking Grave's credibility
+ Graves
was hired by the left-leaning advocacy group [not
actually a Left-leaning group, more Center] to study the effects of
misleading calls as part of the group’s Federal Court application. They're
seeking new elections in seven ridings where, they say, a voter-suppression
campaign was effective in dissuading opposition supporters from voting, casting
doubt on the outcome. <-- this has been pretty much proven now - Robofraud did
effect voter turnout which did give Harper a Majority instead of a 3rd
Minority. (Which would've cost him his job as leader of the CPC... so, yeah, no
motive or anything).
+ The survey was performed using
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) — an automated system — not live
callers. Graves says he was surprised at
the results of his research because the pattern of misleading polling-station
calls is so clear. “It’s really obvious that you were way more likely to
get that if you weren’t a Conservative than otherwise,” he said. “You were
literally three times or four times as likely to get that call.”
+ Only 6.9 per cent of
Conservative supporters in the ridings in question reported receiving a call
directing them to the wrong polling station late in the campaign, while
29.5 per cent of Liberal supporters say they received such a call, many
after having received a voter-identification call. The poll was a random
sample of 3,297 Canadians in the seven ridings and is considered to be accurate
to within plus or minus 1.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
+ Because of the risk of opposition
supporters “over-remembering” receiving calls directing them to the wrong
polling station, Graves used a control group
of 1,500 respondents in other ridings, where there were no allegations of
misleading calls. Only
14.3 per cent of Liberal supporters in those ridings reported receiving
misleading calls. There’s no way that voters in the seven ridings
named in the legal challenge would be making up stories at a higher rate than
voters in other ridings, said Graves . “It
just stretches the thing beyond any possible plausibility,” he said. “That just
didn’t happen.”
+ Figuring out what percentage of the
electorate in those seven ridings was dissuaded from voting by the calls is
more difficult, said Graves , because the numbers
are “fuzzier.” “We come up with an estimate of roughly 1.5 per cent, which
is a conservative estimate,” he said.
+ That would be enough to have tipped the
balance for the Conservatives in four or five of the seven ridings, Graves said. “It’s clear that there are
other ridings throughout the country that would fall into that category as
well.”
+ Figuring out what percentage of the
electorate in those seven ridings was dissuaded from voting by the calls is
more difficult, said Graves , because the
numbers are “fuzzier.” “We come up with an estimate of roughly 1.5 per
cent, which is a conservative estimate,” he said. That would be enough to
have tipped the balance for the Conservatives in four or five of the seven
ridings, Graves said. “It’s clear that
there are other ridings throughout the country that would fall into that
category as well.” <-- one VERY important
point that the Globe and Mail caught
on this story, that I feel must be added for context:
+ Mr. Graves said Ekos found that 1.5
per cent of voters surveyed in the seven ridings stayed home because of calls
concerning polling station location changes – and 0.1 per cent, or 1/20th of
the total, identified themselves as Conservative supporters. Mr. Graves said
the margin of error in this finding is 0.4 per cent. He said a vote
shift of less than 1.3 per cent in six of the seven ridings was all that was
needed to shift the outcome. <-- That's right, 1.5 % stayed home, but only 1.3% was
needed to shift the outcome of the election.
Elections
Canada diving into phone records to track suspicious election calls -
April 25, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ EC Investigators recently contacted
voters with specific questions about their home telephone providers, in an
apparent attempt to electronically trace incoming calls they received leading
up to the May 2 vote. The interviews suggest the agency is using the same
investigative techniques in tracing fraudulent ``live'' calls that it used to
track the ``Pierre Poutine'' robocall sent to thousands of voters in Guelph
+ Two weeks ago, Elections Canada investigator John Dickson - a former RCMP inspector with a pilot's licence - flew up to Mattawa, Ont., in Nipissing-Timiskaming in his own plane to interview Ken Ferance and Linda Hearst, who share an address and a phone.
+ Two weeks ago, Elections Canada investigator John Dickson - a former RCMP inspector with a pilot's licence - flew up to Mattawa, Ont., in Nipissing-Timiskaming in his own plane to interview Ken Ferance and Linda Hearst, who share an address and a phone.
+ During the campaign,
Hearst received a voter-identification call from the CPC, to which she
responded negatively. On election day, after he had voted, Ferance, 66,
received a call from a 647 area code - in Toronto
+ Ferance said two
Elections Canada workers at the polling station told him other voters reported
receiving the same kind of call.
+ Ferance and Hearst
met Dickson at the Mattawa airport and drove to a local restaurant, where he
interviewed them about the call. He later sent them an affidavit for their
signatures. Dickson told Ferance that his joke about government workers
was significant, because it demonstrated that the caller claimed to be from
Elections Canada. He also said that the agency ''would try their best to try to
track the phone records,'' said Ferance.
+ Ferance said
Dickson discussed evidence of a Thunder
Bay Thunder Bay
+ Ferance said Dickson said it was likely that an investigation would take
many months, and end without a conviction. ``He said most of these are agreements
reached out of court,'' Ferance said. <-- Talk about burying the lead.
It's almost as if the article is setting us up to be prepared for
disappointment. Pre-emptively softening the blow to come.
+ Elections Canada
+ Ferance is one of the electors named
in a series of legal challenges launched by the Council of Canadians that
alleges fraudulent calls affected the outcome of the vote in
Nipissing-Timiskaming and six other ridings across the country. Another
elector involved in the litigation, Peggy Walsh Craig, said she was called last
week by an Elections Canada investigator seeking details about her phone
provider. She told him it was Cogeco, she said, and was left with the
impression he would take steps to obtain the phone records from the company.
+ Rota ,
the riding's former MP, is not directly involved in the litigation, but he said
he's heard from people in the area about increased activity by Elections Canada
investigators recently. ``I understand they've been fairly active. I've
had people tell me they've been called over the last few weeks,'' Rota said. ``From what I've heard, they want to prove
something but without the (telephone) records, it's hard to prove anything.''
+ Investigators
require court orders to compel a list of different telephone companies to
produce the data on incoming calls. Phone companies typically keep billing
records for inbound long-distance calls but records of local calls may not be
tracked by switching equipment. In each case, the investigator would have to
swear a statement, called an Information to Obtain, to back up the request for the
production orders. If the orders are granted by the court, the billing records
could help investigators trace the calls to their source.
+ One
voter in the Ontario Bell Chelmsford , outside of
Sudbury
+ Four
or five days before the vote, Caldwell-Toews said, his mother received a live
call asking whether the Conservatives could count on her support. His mother, a
Liberal Party member, said no.
Update #7
Robocalls IP address same as one used by Conservative candidate
campaign worker, Elections Canada alleges - May 4, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Finally: Mathews said he
intends to seek a court order in Saskatchewan Saskatchewan
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Mathews filed a sworn
statement on March 20, 2012 to request a court order for Rogers
+ Prescott
+ According to Christopher
Rougier, the Conservative Party's Director of Voter Contact, Prescott Prescott
downloaded three “Daemon Dailer” reports for Guelph
+ Of note: Elections Canada
+ RackNine records showed
that Prescott ’s account had been accessed from 99.225.28.34,
a Rogers IP address in Guelph
+ Most of the IP addresses
used by "Pierre Poutine" to logon to RackNine’s website to set up the
calls were hidden by freeproxyserver.ca, a proxy server, but "Pierre Jones”, as he was known
to RackNine and PayPal — slipped up and made contact from the same address used
to access Prescott
+ The data linking the two
RackNine clients, identified by client numbers 45 for Prescott and 93 for
“Jones,” was captured in session logs not discovered by RackNine owner Matt
Meier until March 6, 2012 although Mathews first asked for the IP address in
November. Meier, who handled a lot of legitimate robocalls for the Conservatives
during the campaign, uncovered the link after combing through session logs. <-- And Meier, helpful as he is, had no inclination to do any of this in the 10 months before hand, of course.
+ Client 93, the Jones account,
used an IP that traced back to the proxy server, while client 45, Prescott
+ There is no proof that
Prescott himself logged onto RackNine using the Jones account — only that the
logon came from the same address IP that had also been used by his account. It is unclear from
documents if the Rogers IP address was assigned to Burke’s campaign office or
another location but Mathews alleges that the IP address was used by both Burke
campaign worker Andrew Prescott and "Pierre Poutine".
+ Mathews says that Matt
Meier provided the list of numbers used in the fraudulent robocall to the Conservative
Party, which then compared it to the list of CIMS data for Guelph
+ Prescott ,
a self-described 'cellphone expert', is active in provincial and federal
politics in the Guelph
+ Prescott
+ Newly-released court documents
also show that a CPC staffer told Elections Canada that he been asked by another
Burke campaign worker in the days before the vote about making disinformation
calls. Mathews’ statement recounts
interviews with two Conservative campaign workers who now work for the
government, who report that Sona discussed deceptive telephone tactics. Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton sat in on those interviews.
+ Matthew McBain, who worked
on the central campaign (in the Ottawa War Room, apparently) and is now a policy adviser to Agiculture Minister Gerry
Ritz, said he spoke to Sona in April, 2011 after Guelph
+ Mathews also interviewed
Chris Crawford, a Guelph
+ Crawford told Mathews that, while in Burke’s campaign office, he had heard Sona speaking to campaign manager Ken Morgan about “how Americans do politics.” The conversation referred to calling non-supporters late at night pretending to be Liberals, or calling electors to tell them their polling stations had moved. Crawford told Mathews he did not think Sona was serious but claimed he told Sona the comments were inappropriate.
+ Crawford told Mathews that, while in Burke’s campaign office, he had heard Sona speaking to campaign manager Ken Morgan about “how Americans do politics.” The conversation referred to calling non-supporters late at night pretending to be Liberals, or calling electors to tell them their polling stations had moved. Crawford told Mathews he did not think Sona was serious but claimed he told Sona the comments were inappropriate.
+ Crawford, Sona and Prescott
were good friends who spent time together on provincial and federal political campaigns
through their association with the Guelph Campus Conservatives. In February, on his blog, Prescott
+ Also of note: Pierre Poutine's RackNine account was funded with PayPal transactions made with untraceable pre-paid “Vanilla” brand gift credit cards. 'He' bought a Vanilla MasterCard ith a $200 credit and three Vanilla Visa cards totalling $260 from two Shoppers Drug Marts on opposite sides of downtownGuelph
+ Also of note: Pierre Poutine's RackNine account was funded with PayPal transactions made with untraceable pre-paid “Vanilla” brand gift credit cards. 'He' bought a Vanilla MasterCard ith a $200 credit and three Vanilla Visa cards totalling $260 from two Shoppers Drug Marts on opposite sides of downtown
Pierre Poutine's trail goes cold in Saskatchewan - May
8, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Elections Canada investigator Al Mathews hit
a dead end when he tried to track the digital trail of "Pierre
Poutine" through freeproxyserver.ca, a computer server in the small town
of Conquest, Saskatchewan. Mathews obtained a court order
compelling Marc Norris, the owner of the server, to turn over records of
contacts from an Internet address in Guelph ,
Ontario
+ Norris's server logs
would’ve captured information about the visitor's IP address, operating system
and web browser. But Norris said the
length of time servers like his retain logs depends on the volume of traffic. A
busy server would typically keep records only about a week before overwriting
the logs with new data.
+ The digital search appears
to have taken Mathews from Ottawa to Saskatchewan Saskatoon
+ The failure to obtain the
records does not necessarily mean the electronic chase for Poutine is at an
end. Mathews last month received account information for the Rogers Cable
customer who launched the misleading robocalls through RackNine Inc., an Edmonton
+ It is unclear if the Rogers
IP address from Guelph
Elections Canada's hunt for Pierre Poutine hits another
roadblock -
May 9, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ Investigators hoping to
land a video of Pierre Poutine came up empty when they tracked the robocall
culprit to two Guelph
+ After following Poutine's
electronic trail for a year, Elections Canada recently learned he paid for
deceptive election-day calls with untraceable "burner" credit cards
from two Shoppers Drug Marts, so they contacted the company's loss prevention
unit and asked to see video recordings of the transactions The security videos would have provided
images of Poutine as he bought the Vanilla branded MasterCard and Visa cards in
April 2011.
+ "Unfortunately we
didn't have the video footage they were looking for," said Tammy Smitham,
Shoppers' director of communications and corporate affairs. "We don't keep
it for that long."
+ She said Shoppers heard
from Elections Canada within the past couple of months. "They just called
our loss prevention people and we looked back to see if we had it for that
date, but it's almost a year old." <-- Long story short: again, too late. Imagine if they had've started investigating this with such gusto back when it could've actually made a difference? Man, if only they hadn't waited almost a full year and for public outrage to light a fire under their asses.
Billing records cast doubt on culprits behind campaign
robocalls - May 10, 2012
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ A comparison ofRogers billing records shows that "Pierre
Poutine" did not use a computer in the headquarters of a Conservative
candidate in Guelph
Alright, we appear to be caught up for the moment. Take a look, see what you can see -- and ask some questions yourself. There seems to be a good lot of'em.
What new/interesting info did we learn here?
+ A comparison of
+ Two other account numbers
provided by Rogers Rogers Rogers
+ The distinction is
significant because some have speculated that any number of Burke campaign
workers could have logged onto RackNine from a shared Internet connection in
the candidate's headquarters. That does not appear to be the case.
+ Although the court filings
appear to rule out Burke's HQ as the source of the Rogers IP, the documents do
not indicate to whom the account belongs.
+ Mathews said in his
statement he used an online IP tracing service to find that the Rogers IP
address was from Guelph Prescott 's
home is located in the Preston area of Cambridge ,
Ontario , about 23 kilometres south of Guelph
+ Mathews has been
investigating the Guelph
Alright, we appear to be caught up for the moment. Take a look, see what you can see -- and ask some questions yourself. There seems to be a good lot of'em.
Cheers!
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