As we near a month since the RoboCon/Robocalls scandal burst onto the blogosphere and main stream media in a big way, there are no signs of it fading. When the breadth of the scandal is known to more Canadians, it will result in a change of government, I’m sure of that.
For some reason unknown to this point, serious violations of the Elections Act all over the country were minimized, ignored, dismissed, and forgotten by most people and the authorities entrusted to uphold the crucial machinery of our democracy. A select few journalists and bloggers have helped keep this scandal under the spotlight like it deserves, and I’m certain Pierre Poutine may be but a minor supporting character in the mess. He’s only made famous by his ridiculous alias, and for being the first to draw attention of investigators.
As you can see from any of the lists built by political parties, news sites, and bloggers, there was widespread fraud, voter harassment, and misdirection, all highly illegal acts during an election. The media goes nuts when signs are knocked down, or pamphlets are stolen, and neither of those prevents people from going to their poll. Why isn’t the media “flipping shit”?
Take a look at this list of crimes in [Toronto,] Ontario. To put it bluntly, this is the sort of crap that I never expected to see in Canada, in my lifetime. It’s profoundly disturbing, since it shows how impotent our authorities really are to protect us from corrupt political parties. An inquiry is certainly required, if not a whole lot more. I don’t expect heaven to help us, but what else can when men and women have failed so spectacularly?
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There had been other serious violations of the Elections Act.
I am not aware that any one had ever been charged, or that there had been any serious investigations by the police or Elections Canada, into the vandalizing incidents in various places (Guelph, Toronto) over at least two elections. The brake lines and tires of cars were cut and the houses of voters with Liberal signs were vandalized.
If perpetrators of such actions, which appear to be trying to intimidate voters from voting for a particular party, are allowed to get away, are we surprised at what is happening in the country today (robocalls)?
So true, Anon.
I hadn’t heard of any convictions for those brake line attacks, and had assumed it was just off my radar.
My impression is that Elections Canada has been quietly working on the Robocalls investigation since the election. What happened is that the National Post leaked some information about the progress about the investigation which lead to all the press recently.
I’m not sure if the investigation has been helped by the additional tips they have gotten because of the media attention or hindered because the perpetrators know that Elections Canada is on to them.
As for the vandalism, without witnesses those cases are hard to crack. The nice thing about the Robocalls is that there should be an electronic trail to follow.
Good observations Darwin. I’m going to say the extra attention has helped light a fire under the butts of people who should have been doing more, months ago.
Elections Canada has now had the better part of a year, and appears to have nothing substantial to show for it.
That’s the list for Toronto. There’s a second, separate list up now for the rest of Ontario.
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This coming Thursday I hope all honourable scribes attend the Mayrand visit at Committee. Being budget day it would serve the Cons right if not one of them paid any attention to yet another pack of lies being released in the House. That would surely send a message that we will not let the #robocall scam wither.
Too hopeful, I had the same thought. How to convince the media of the importance, however?