One of These Things Is NOT Like the Others

Let's get something straight. 'Robocalls' is NOT a generic term for electioneering or marketing techniques that piss us off.

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized system to call targetted numbers and deliver a recorded message.

It is not unlike a flyer in your mailbox or an ad on your telly.

In Canada, robocalls are legally used for political purposes and are subject to regulation by the CRTC.

Sometimes, operatives misuse them -- knowingly or not -- and, when the system works, they get caught and fined by the CRTC.

As was reported last week.

Robocalls are the tie that binds politicos of all stripes — in trouble, that is, to the tune of $369,900 in fines for leaving voters in the dark on who was making the telephone sales pitches.

Running afoul of federal rules on the controversial calls is clipping the finances of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party, Montreal Liberal MP Marc Garneau, the federal NDP and Conservatives, Alberta’s Wildrose Alliance Political Association, Alberta Tory MP Blake Richards and Edmonton telemarketer RackNine Inc.

Scripts for their automated, pre-recorded telephone messages did not say which political party or candidate was behind the calls, nor did they leave a phone number, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Tuesday.

Some of these may indeed have had fraudulent intent or effect, but this 'robocalls' matter is a wholly different kettle of fish from the ELECTION FRAUD case.

The Federal Court has found in no uncertain terms that widespread election fraud took place during the 2011 federal election. The ruling clearly states that "there was an orchestrated effort to suppress votes during the 2011 election campaign by a person with access to the [Conservative Party's] CIMS database."

"This Federal Court decision is a major indictment of the Conservative Party of Canada," says Garry Neil, Executive Director of the Council of Canadians. "Either senior leaders of the Conservative Party were directly involved in election fraud or they were astoundingly negligent in securing access to their voter database. Illegal or incompetent -- just like in the Senate scandal."

Or as Andrew Coyne put it:

Someone is trying to frame the Conservative Party of Canada. Either that, or the party is the victim of a theft, possibly by its own supporters.

Someone, at any rate, hacked into the party’s closely guarded voter database in the closing hours of the 2011 election, using it to call thousands of voters across the country whom the party had previously identified as non-Conservatives, telling them, falsely, that their polling station had been moved. Someone, that is, committed massive electoral fraud, in a way that could only benefit the Conservative party and making use of proprietary party information. But they did it without the party’s knowledge or participation.

The means may have been automated dialling, but the resource was the Conservative Party of Canada's 'closely guarded voter database'.

And the beneficiaries were solely the Conservative Party of Canada.

And yet, said Conservative Party of Canada seems strangely sanguine about it.

Asked about the database breach, Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said: “We take security very seriously.”

So. The Cons' only plausible defence is that the database was hacked, yet that's not what they're claiming.

If anything, they are celebrating.

We are pleased that this baseless case by the activist Council of Canadians was dismissed by the court.

— Fred DeLorey (@FredDeLorey) May 24, 2013

And yes, they fight all investigations tooth and nail. And yes, they are trying to conflate ELECTION FRAUD with the CRTC's robocall probes, which they are pleased to note nabbed actors from several parties. And yes, they are deflecting as hard as they can onto the Duffster's greed and vainglory -- who is leaking all those damning emails to the media, by the way?

But they seem quite unconcerned about their precious database.

Susan Delacourt is almost alone among the media wondering why.

Or as a famous detective wondered, why aren't the dogs barking?

I'll leave you with this because we are knee-deep at the moment and it's going to get waaaaay deeper.

Stinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy

It was in late May of 2011, at an event organized by the Ottawa Citizen, that I first saw Stephen Taylor in person.

I'd heard about him and even written about him; he was the self-aggrandizing co-founder of an aggregator that gathered a shrieking blob of venomously partisan, unabashedly venal and obdurately ill-informed bloggers under the deceptively benign label "Blogging Tories".  Taylor was also a beneficiary of wingnut welfare, in the guise of funding that allowed him to attend the Manning Institute for the Suppression Study of Democracy.

Fresh from feasting upon the remains of a recent kill, Taylor preened and posed in the manner of a political operative, an up-and-coming jackal rising to the top of his pack.

Ensconced in the comfortable appointment that CPC patronage bestowed upon him, he glistened from all the admiring licks that sycophants administered.

He blocked me on Twitter months ago; I can only catch glimpses of his malevolence when he interacts with accounts that I follow.

I've recently captured some of his disingenuous and mean-spirited utterances which are representative of the quotidian meretriciousness from religious fundamentalists, neocon dissemblers and unreformed reformers that scurry about and jostle for advancement within the ranks of the CPC.

Hyena snarls and furtive nips are delivered to those identified by the former Canadian Reform Alliance Party as unlikely to vote for them.

Such target - young, educated, female, muslim - provides easy trolling opportunities for one of PMSHithead's Politburo Attack Parrots. Remember, Taylor openly dismissed Irwin Cotler's concerns and those of the LPC when a CON polling company tried to plant rumours that he was resigning his seat.

When those tactics were exposed, Taylor had no smug response to offer.

Added: Unbelievably, Rob Anders woke up and spoke; his CONspiracy accusations temporarily eclipsed Taylor's odiousness.

Creekside: RoboCon Time Capsule

Or, What We Knew and When We Knew It.

Spoiler alert: Way back.

Pssst: If you don't have Creekside in your blog-roll or bookmarks, why the hell not?

Today's CPC election fraud news.

Excellent investigative journalism from the CBC's Terry Milewski. Yes, that Terry.

An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they got robocalls sending them to fictitious polling stations was that they'd revealed they would not vote Conservative.

Although the Conservative Party has denied any involvement in the calls, these new details suggest that the misleading calls relied on data gathered by, and carefully guarded by, the Conservative Party.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand announced Thursday that he now has "over 700 Canadians from across the country" who allege "specific circumstances" of fraudulent or improper calls. CBC News examined 31 ridings where such calls have been reported and found a pattern: those receiving those calls also had previous calls from the Conservative Party to find out which way they would vote.

Tim McCoy of the riding of Ottawa-Vanier was one of those who complained to Elections Canada. He received a bogus recorded message pretending to be from Elections Canada — but he also had two previous calls from the Conservatives.

"They did call me back from the Conservative Association and ask if they could count on my support," said McCoy, who declined to pledge his vote. He thinks that's why someone tried to mislead him.

"It looks like a hijacking of the democratic process," he added. "I would like to know who made the call pretending to be from Elections Canada and I don't really care which way the finger points. I would like to know."

Elections Canada says it never calls voters at all. However, it is only now emerging that calls impersonating Elections Canada followed previous calls by Conservative workers asking which way voters were leaning. That suggests that the "Elections Canada" calls, which are illegal, came from people with access to data gathered by the Conservative Party, which carefully controls access to it.

Asked about that, party spokesman Fred Delorey had no comment and declined an interview.

More, at the Globe&Mail.

Oddly enough, the Sun newspapers have not provided similar in depth coverage of Elections Canada investigations into complaints of voter suppression. StunTV midiot Levant's notion of "hard news" is to rant about the legitimacy of the 31,000 complaints filed with EC.

Appealing. . .

I've had some recent experience with the legal system. I and some other long-term tenants fought our gentrifying landscum over our eviction. (Someday I'll tell the whole tale.) We lost at the kangaroo court known as the Landscum and Tenant Board.

We appealed. The advantage of this move is that one's case is heard by actual trained judges -- not by politically appointed stooges -- so we went for it. (Cost a bomb but sent landscum loco. That was satisfying.)

The disadvantage is that one is at the mercy of a) lying Big Swinging Dick Lawyers and b) incredible-til-one-experiences-it class bias in judges.

We lost.

Now, if we had dropped the appeal before it was heard, what would that have meant?

It would ^NOT have meant that we agreed to disagree with the landscum.

It would have meant that we accepted the decision of the kangaroo court.

It would have meant that we accepted that we had LOST.

Ah, but that's how it works for us little people.

Now looky here.

The Conservative Party of Canada has repaid taxpayers $230,198 for the "in-and-out" election financing dispute and dropped its appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada.

The party, currently fending off allegations of wrongdoing in the 2011 election over misleading telephone calls to voters, notified the Supreme Court last Friday that it wouldn't proceed with its case against Elections Canada.

Remember the old 'In and Out' scandal? And its current iteration?

[The Contempt Party] won the case in a lower court ruling, but in early 2011, the federal Court of Appeal unanimously overturned that ruling, saying Elections Canada had every right to deny the expenses.

The Conservatives brought the case to the Supreme Court, which granted the party leave to appeal in October.

They had a date set in May, but now they've quietly -- on a Friday, natch -- dropped the appeal.

So that means the Contempt Party accepts the decision of the lower court, yes? Accepts that they LOST?

Of course not.

"This has been a long-standing administrative dispute with Elections Canada over whether certain campaign expenses should be counted as local or national," Fred DeLorey, Conservative party spokesman, said in a statement to CBC News.

"We are agreeing to disagree and will be dropping our appeal to the Supreme Court. We are amending our return under protest to reflect this."

Right. Fiddle the books, get caught, fight, fight, fight, lose, appeal, then drop appeal, pay back some dough, then claim victory.

Anyone have any doubt that this is how the current investigation will play out? Like in 2018 or so?

But telling, innit, that they've dropped the appeal now. Hmm. Maybe because they've got stinkier bigger fish to bury fry?

Legacy

The Harper Government is well on its way to being the Government of Firsts.

First, contempt of Parliament.

The contempt finding is unique in Canadian history. In a wider context, it is the first time that a government in the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations has been found in contempt of Parliament.

This morning on The House, former Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley was asked what the penalty for electoral fraud is. He said, 'a fine of $5,000 and/or a prison term of up to five years'. Asked whether anyone had ever gone to prison, he said not to his knowledge. But then added: 'But there's a first time for everything'.

There's a legacy for ya, Stevie.

ADDED: Niles asked in the comments but others may have the same question: Who orders an investigation?

As I understand it from this morning's radio program, the Commissioner of Elections Canada orders an investigation by Elections Canada staff who then take the findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions, currently this guy, who decides whether there is a case to bring. Note date of appointment. Yup, 2007, post-Harper.

Viral, Baby!

This is cool. The number of signers of this RoboCon/RoboScam petition stood at just over 2300 when I signed at about 3:30. Just two hours later, it's now at nearly 5100.

My good friend Connie at Free Dominion is on it.

Can we get 100,000 by the end of the weekend?

UPDATE: 8:30 p.m., over 8600.

That's how the CONs roll.

As we predicted, Michael Sona took the fall. Stevie's Politburo now hopes the whole stinking robocall mess will stop drawing attention to the CONtempt Party's unscrupulous, unethical and quite likely, illegal tactics.

But not so fast. Here's an example of what happens to CPC political operatives who get thrown under the bus.

Is it a scam or a miraculous resuscitation?

Added: A prediction that Sona will have a cushy landing and will be offered employment at the Canadian Olympic Committee because of this connection.

Also you MUST read Alison at Creekside for more connect-the-dots goodness.

RoboScam: RackNine Paid in US Dollars?

Right now there are more questions than answers in the RoboScam election fraud affair. (I had no idea we [ok, deBeauxOs] here at DAMMIT JANET! had been on this for so loooong.)

Here is my question for now.

Why were some RackNine invoices either billed in or paid in US currency?

It's an Edmonton company working a Canadian election.

Have a look at the invoices, receipts, and emails.

The invoice to Leon Benoit's campaign has a note about the amount in equivalent Canadian dollars.

Jason Kenney's invoice has a scribble at bottom near the total that looks like 'US $'.

Yet noted on the RackNine invoices:

Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the supplier all invoices are payable on or before the due date noted above, in the currency of the invoice drawn on a bank based in Canada or by such other method as agreed in advance by RackNine Inc.

The RackNine receipts specify CAD beside the amount, but invoices just say 'Total (in $)'.

Do Conservatives love the US so much they prefer to use its currency?

Or was it an attempt to limit Elections Canada's jurisdiction?

And more questions: Alison has questions about connections between Campaign Research and deniability in general and the robocalls in particular.

We hate to say we told you so but ...

actually, we do like to say "We told you so!" though in this case it's not triumphant, simply an observation that DAMMIT JANET! suggested there was something fishy about the robocalling scam.

Right after elxn41, we urged journalists to investigate the curious matter of phone calls to folks ^NOT identified as CONtempt Party supporters.

Some of the robocalls were harassment, some gave false instructions about voting on Election Day and deliberately directed people to non-existent polls locations. None of the calls said they had been initiated by the CONservative Party; in fact some claimed they were from Elections Canada.

More election fraudulence? The Cons are furiously trying to distance themselves from this stinking mess and bets have been placed: many think this political operative will take the blame and be thrown under the expediency bus ... only to be eventually resuscitated and recycled by Stevie's Politburo, no doubt. Cheating and fraud, as well as getting away with it has become an achievement of the reformatories.

Susan Delacourt makes interesting connections about voter apathy.

At Dawg's Blawg, the combined research capabilities and political acumen of Alison at Creekside and the Dr are on top of the story.

In May last year, I attended an evening of information sharing about political websites and discovered the awesomeness that is The Pundits' Guide to Canadian Federal Elections. Check it out.

That's Michael Sona - the putative *masturmind* of the CONs' robocalls scam, lurking in the background.

The Big Picture

Once more, go read Alison at Creekside: The North American-Made Energy Security Act to admire how she neatly connects all the dots.

So my question is: were the robocalls in support of Con candidates, for the purpose of MASSIVELY infuriating and mis-directing Canadian voters during the federal election funded by Koch Industries?

The calls came from a US location. Elections Canada has no jurisdiction or no mandate to investigate this form of illicit campaign contribution. Though the flurry of calls were fast and furious, and their purpose was to discourage electors from voting for anyone but the Contempt Party, it would be difficult to pin this disruptive tactic on them.

While the calls clearly targeted specific households in certain ridings - which makes one wonder who provided the robocallers with annotated Canadian electoral lists - where to start looking in order to make the connection between Koch Industries money, the undeclared contributions and the Contempt Party war-room?

The most important story of elxn41

First, the most important story isn't as *sexy* as some elements in the Ruth Ellen Brosseau saga.

By the way, it's important to note that she's not the first poteau elected to the House of Commons. A number of those were swept into Parliament by Mulroney's mammoth wave of new-elected Progressive Conservative MPs in 1984. I don't recall they were subjected to the same level of sustained scrutiny as she's been since her election.

So, the critical story is the increasing use of US-style political dirty tricks exploited before and during election campaigns. Excellent deconstructions of the Contempt Party's use of attack ads to plant negative images and narratives that might influence how electors view the Opposition leader were done here and here.

But it puzzles me that nobody in the purported *liberal* media has produced a thorough investigation of the MASSIVE amount of robo-calls deployed in specific ridings to deliberately irritate electors and to present false information.

It's been determined by tracing some of them to their source that most if not all originated with one US-based company. It is critical to establish who produced this carefully-crafted harassment campaign and how it was paid for.

Did #Contempt Party political operatives encourage supporters to fund this initiative and did they tell them to direct their financial contributions to a US-based company in order to evade the purview of Elections Canada?

Canadians want and need to know if this is the case.

Of Robocalls and Cyborg/Alien Queens.

Back in 2008 when Sarah Palin was thrust onto the US political scene as running mate to the Republican presidential candidate, I blogged about her tactical affinities with the Alien Queen. In the comments, someone also noted the ressemblance with the Borg Queen.

Thus it's only fitting that Palin's disembodied voice has been pressed into service for the "Faith and Freedom Coalition", the Virginia branch of the national group Christian Coalition.

“Virginia, hello, this is Sarah Palin calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday and vote to share our principles,” the former Alaska governor says in the call, which was provided to CNN by one Democrat who recorded it. “The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. So don’t take anything for granted, vote your values on Tuesday, and urge your friends and family to vote, too.”

"Our principles" has become codespeak in the carpetbagging teabaggers movement for their fundamentalist religious zealotry and rightwing batshit crazy ideology.
Update: More about those "principles" at Think Progress.