2011 Canadian federal election voter suppression scandal

Elections Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted investigations into the claims that calls were made to dissuade voters from casting ballots by falsely telling them that the location of their polling stations had changed.

In February 2012, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported that during the 2011 Canadian federal election, misleading phone calls were made in at least 14 ridings, including Guelph, Ontario.

[31] On March 28, 2012, Elections Canada indicated that they were closer to identifying the person behind the fraudulent robocalls in Guelph from records obtained from Rogers Communications under a production order.

"[34][35][36] Pierre Poutine/Pierre Jones had also considered the idea of having calls made to Guelph constituents in the middle of the night, while spoofing the phone number of local Liberal party candidate Frank Valeriote.

[32] Meier also informed Elections Canada that "Pierre" had telephoned him on his "unlisted office number" and had asked to speak with him personally when initially setting up the account.

Prescott also allegedly downloaded a list of telephone numbers from the Conservative Party's central database on April 30, the same day the Pierre Poutine account was created.

[38][39] In August, a more detailed analysis of Elections Canada court filings showed that Andrew Prescott and "Pierre Poutine" had used the same computer in the middle of the night of 1–2 May 2011, within minutes of each other, without signing out in between.

[40] On October 31, 2012, accused Conservative Party staff member Michael Sona, whom anonymous reports had named as responsible for the Guelph voter suppression efforts, gave an extensive media interview on CBC's Power & Politics.

"[41] In November 2012, the Guelph Mercury reported that Burke's campaign manager, Ken Morgan, had moved to Kuwait, changed his email, left no phone number and refused to speak with Elections Canada.

The case judge, Célynne Dorval, issued a temporary publication ban covering much of the content of the ITO orders, at the request of Sona's lawyer and agreed to by the Crown prosecutor, to ensure a fair trial.

"[45] On January 15, 2014 it was announced that Andrew Prescott, the Conservative deputy campaign manager and IT coordinator in Guelph, had been granted immunity from prosecution in the case in exchange for his participation as a witness.

[60][61] The legal challenge brought forward by the Council of Canadians case relies on the affidavit of Annette Desgagne, a Responsive Marketing Group call centre worker who says that she and her co-workers were given scripts to mislead voters on election day into going to the wrong location to vote.

Arthur Hamilton, a lawyer representing the Conservative Party, called the affidavit "false" and stated that he would seek to have the Council of Canadians court case thrown out as "flawed" and a "publicity stunt".

Fred DeLorey, a Conservative Party spokesman, added about the case, "This is a transparent attempt to overturn certified election results simply because this activist group doesn't like them".

[77] In mid-March 2013, after more than 21 months of investigation, Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Côté recommended to Director of Public Prosecutions, Brian Saunders, that charges should be laid with regard to the Guelph robocalls.

In June 2013, Croft Michaelson, the federal lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, confirmed that they were proceeding by indictment against Sona, which carries the maximum penalty.

Yves Côté, Commissioner of Canada Elections, said in a press release, "ultimately, investigators have been able to determine that incorrect poll locations were provided to some electors, and that some nuisance calls occurred.

"[82] Lawyer Steven Shrybman, who represented the Council of Canadians in their related case, called the Elections Canada investigation "fatally flawed" and stated that it ignored key evidence presented.

Shrybman said in a report he authored, "in spite of having narrowly confined his inquiry, the Commissioner draws an aggressive and overly broad conclusion that goes well beyond an acknowledgement that he was simply unable to identify the culprit or culprits behind the voter suppression calls that were widely reported...Remarkably, there is no indication that the Commissioner asked the CPC (Conservative Party of Canada) to produce the record of CIMS database use in the days leading to the Election to determine how often, and by whom, lists of non-CPC supporters were downloaded.

[111][112] In a letter to The Globe and Mail, John Fryer said the voter suppression tactics described at this seminar were borrowed from those used by the Republican Party of the United States.

[114] On April 9, 2012 allegations were raised that two Front Porch Strategies American employees, company director PJ Wenzel and CEO Matthew Parker, had taken part in campaigning for Conservative candidates in contravention of the Canada Elections Act.

Ipsos-Reid attributed this to weeks of enduring controversy, including the robocall scandal, an uninspiring budget and the auditor general's report on the troubled F-35 stealth-fighter program.

[127] Preston Manning, who was a key player in the formation of the current conservative movement in Canada, indicated that he found the robocall and voter suppression tactics "deplorable".

The same survey also stated that 63% of Canadians believe the Conservatives are "likely to provide false and misleading information to voters through telephone calls with pre-recorded messages during a political campaign", while the numbers for the Liberal, NDP, and Green Parties are lower at 55%, 33%, and 32%, respectively.

[157] Simultaneously, protests were held in St. John's, and planned for Brampton, Brantford, Hamilton, Kingston, London,[158] Nelson, Oshawa, Saskatoon, Hope, and Fort St.

[168] On March 27, 2012, the Council of Canadians announced that they had launched a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada to ask for by-elections to be ordered in seven ridings where complaints were received and where Conservatives had won by slim margins.

"[174] The move to dismiss was not allowed, Federal Court Prothonotary Martha Milczynski ruled on July 19, 2012 that the case should proceed, indicating that Council of Canadians' application raised serious doubts about the integrity of the democratic process.

[175] On June 26, 2012, Brother Kornelis Klevering who was the Marijuana Party of Canada candidate for the riding of Guelph, launched his own legal challenge on the grounds that the robo fraud had completely poisoned the integrity of the electoral process, contrary to section 3 of the Canadian Constitution.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians responded, "Elections Canada won't tell us the basic facts of the case: when the complaints were received, which ridings are involved or what they are doing about it other than chasing Mr. Poutine.

"[178] Among the evidence is the affidavit from the Responsive Marketing Group call centre worker who says she and her co-workers were given scripts to mislead voters on election into going to the wrong location to vote.