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Authors: Michael Harris
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eventually become the robocalls scandal, and months before a fellow called “Pierre Poutine” emerged as the mysterious villain of the piece.
On April 29 at 8:16 p.m., Sylvie Jacmain, the director of field programs and services for Elections Canada, sent an email to agency lawyer Ageliki Apostolakos, reporting problems in the ridings of Saint Boniface, Manitoba, and Kitchener-Conestoga, Ontario: “It seems representatives of Mr. Harper’s campaign communicated with voters to inform them that their polling station had changed, and the directions offered to one would lead her more than an hour and a half from her real voting place. . . .” The Conservative campaign in Saint Boniface itself got in touch with party headquarters “who were doing the calls,” a reference to the party’s legitimate automated messaging. Then Elections Canada’s lawyer emailed Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, informing him of what was happening. The elections watchdog wanted some answers.
It took Hamilton twenty-seven hours to respond. When he did, he told Elections Canada that Conservative campaign workers had simply been contacting voters to ensure they were going to the right polling stations. Just after midnight on May 1, Hamilton replied to Apostolakos’s email, stating that “a number of our candidates have had to confirm the proper location of polling stations to a number of supporters during their respective get-out-the-vote efforts. The calls being made by our candidates request the voter to confirm his or her polling stations. There is no indication by the caller that the location may have changed, or words to that effect. And no voter is being directed to a polling location one and a half hours away from the correct polling location.” Three years later, we would learn from the commissioner of Elections Canada’s report that the Conservative Party provided a script to ResponsiveMarketing Group (RMG) for a national campaign that included this line to be used by its callers: “Elections Canada has changed some voting locations at the last moment. To be sure, could you tell me the address of where you’re voting?”
But in his response to Elections Canada, Hamilton flatly denied that a voter had been misdirected to a polling station far from her correct poll—at least by the Conservatives. Within hours of Hamilton’s denial, Elections Canada had received reports of misleading calls from eleven different ridings. Another email was sent to Hamilton, with the information that some voters had recorded the originating phone numbers of the robocalls, which led back to the Conservative Party. The calls were being received from as far east as Avalon, in Newfoundland and Labrador, and as far west as Prince George–Peace River, in British Columbia. Dismissing the evidence, Hamilton stuck to the party line in a reply to Elections Canada officials at 10:45 a.m. on election day, and re-sent his email. If someone was playing dirty politics, he stated firmly, it wasn’t the Conservative Party of Canada.
What looked like a bizarre national scam now had Elections Canada buzzing. According to an internal email, “It’s right across the country except Saskatchewan; a lot of the calls are from electoral districts in Ontario. It appears it’s getting worse. Some returning officers reported that the calls are allegedly identifying Elections Canada.” From party headquarters, Fred DeLorey also denied that the Conservative Party was trying to mislead anyone; it was just calling supporters to get out the vote. His explanation was strange. Why would there be so many protests if the Conservatives were merely calling their own supporters? It appeared that someone had a list of non-Conservative supporters and was using it to send out misdirections to people who would not be voting for Stephen Harper’s party. Still, top Tories kept to their speaking points. Conservative campaign co-chair Guy Giorno told CTVNews that voter suppression
On April 29 at 8:16 p.m., Sylvie Jacmain, the director of field programs and services for Elections Canada, sent an email to agency lawyer Ageliki Apostolakos, reporting problems in the ridings of Saint Boniface, Manitoba, and Kitchener-Conestoga, Ontario: “It seems representatives of Mr. Harper’s campaign communicated with voters to inform them that their polling station had changed, and the directions offered to one would lead her more than an hour and a half from her real voting place. . . .” The Conservative campaign in Saint Boniface itself got in touch with party headquarters “who were doing the calls,” a reference to the party’s legitimate automated messaging. Then Elections Canada’s lawyer emailed Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, informing him of what was happening. The elections watchdog wanted some answers.
It took Hamilton twenty-seven hours to respond. When he did, he told Elections Canada that Conservative campaign workers had simply been contacting voters to ensure they were going to the right polling stations. Just after midnight on May 1, Hamilton replied to Apostolakos’s email, stating that “a number of our candidates have had to confirm the proper location of polling stations to a number of supporters during their respective get-out-the-vote efforts. The calls being made by our candidates request the voter to confirm his or her polling stations. There is no indication by the caller that the location may have changed, or words to that effect. And no voter is being directed to a polling location one and a half hours away from the correct polling location.” Three years later, we would learn from the commissioner of Elections Canada’s report that the Conservative Party provided a script to ResponsiveMarketing Group (RMG) for a national campaign that included this line to be used by its callers: “Elections Canada has changed some voting locations at the last moment. To be sure, could you tell me the address of where you’re voting?”
But in his response to Elections Canada, Hamilton flatly denied that a voter had been misdirected to a polling station far from her correct poll—at least by the Conservatives. Within hours of Hamilton’s denial, Elections Canada had received reports of misleading calls from eleven different ridings. Another email was sent to Hamilton, with the information that some voters had recorded the originating phone numbers of the robocalls, which led back to the Conservative Party. The calls were being received from as far east as Avalon, in Newfoundland and Labrador, and as far west as Prince George–Peace River, in British Columbia. Dismissing the evidence, Hamilton stuck to the party line in a reply to Elections Canada officials at 10:45 a.m. on election day, and re-sent his email. If someone was playing dirty politics, he stated firmly, it wasn’t the Conservative Party of Canada.
What looked like a bizarre national scam now had Elections Canada buzzing. According to an internal email, “It’s right across the country except Saskatchewan; a lot of the calls are from electoral districts in Ontario. It appears it’s getting worse. Some returning officers reported that the calls are allegedly identifying Elections Canada.” From party headquarters, Fred DeLorey also denied that the Conservative Party was trying to mislead anyone; it was just calling supporters to get out the vote. His explanation was strange. Why would there be so many protests if the Conservatives were merely calling their own supporters? It appeared that someone had a list of non-Conservative supporters and was using it to send out misdirections to people who would not be voting for Stephen Harper’s party. Still, top Tories kept to their speaking points. Conservative campaign co-chair Guy Giorno told CTVNews that voter suppression
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