PARLIAMENT HILL—Parliament is in the grip of what opposition MPs describe as the biggest election scandal in Canadian history.
Daily revelations in the ongoing “robocall” affair continue to torque up the rhetoric during question period in the House of Commons while Canadians try to keep up with the ever-evolving issue.
Days before last May’s election, calls in Guelph, Ontario, purporting to be from Elections Canada, told voters their polling stations had changed, according to documents from the Elections Canada campaign obtained by reporters.
Now reports are coming in daily of fraudulent or harassing phone calls made during the election, and the NDP as well as Green Party leader Elizabeth May are calling for a public inquiry into the issue.
The Conservatives appear ready to concede that something went wrong in Guelph, but are putting up an increasingly fierce defence against allegations of widespread abuse.
Below is a timeline of events so far.
May 2, 2011
Canadians vote in the 41st General Election. Scattered reports come in of misleading automated phone calls directing voters to go to the wrong polling station supposedly at the direction of Elections Canada.
Aug. 17, 2011
Elections Canada issues its Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the election and notes it is dealing with 1,003 complaints, and that the commissioner is investigating “crank calls designed to discourage voting, discourage voting for a particular party, or incorrectly advise electors of changed polling locations.”
Nov. 22, 2011
Liberal MP Irwin Cotler rises for the second time in the House to press his case that calls currently happening in his riding were claiming he was going to step down as MP, thus undermining his work in the House. The calls were made for the Tories by research firm Campaign Research.
Dec. 13, 2011
House Speaker Andrew Scheer ruled he has no power to deal with Conservative phone calls into Cotler’s riding, but described the tactic as “reprehensible.”
Feb. 22, 2012
Stephen Maher of Postmedia News and Glen McGregor of the Ottawa Citizen report Elections Canada has traced fraudulent calls during the election to RackNine, an Edmonton call centre that worked on at least nine Conservative candidates’ campaigns. The automated calls claimed to be from Elections Canada telling voters their polling station had moved.
The report notes Elections Canada and the RCMP are investigating the calls while the Conservatives conduct an internal probe. The Conservative Party denies knowledge of the calls, which were launched through a burner cellphone with a 450 area code from Joliette, Quebec.
RackNine CEO Matt Meier denies he knew of the calls before Elections Canada contacted him in November.
The Citizen-Postmedia investigation found that calls misdirecting voters were also reported in several ridings across the country, possibly because of robo-dialling errors.
