ConCalls: Live #PROC Committee – LiveBlog

Watch live on CBC.ca

Kady:
In what can only be described as a deeply unfortunate bit of scheduling business, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand is set to make his first public statement on the robocalls controversy at committee later this morning, just hours before the budget drops, when all but a handful of Hill media — although not, I should note, your humble liveblogging correspondent — will be sequestered in the finance department lockup, and as such, unable to attend, or even tune into the livestream to hear what he has to say.

-70 complaints immediately during the election (with 700 specific incidents reported by this year more recently)

More to come..
Kady noted on Twitter that investigations such as this may take more than 2 years. I think that’s totally unacceptable even though it’s true. If money had been stolen, the RCMP would have pressed charges by now, but ElCan has been investigating for 10 months with 0 charges laid in the most serious of crimes against our nation!

-24 ridings had polling changes, but no notices go out by phone, EC does not have electors’ phone numbers. A closed poll has a worker there to redirect arrivals. Candidates and parties were asked specifically not to notify voters of polling location changes.

-Mayrand complains that EC was not notified of irregularities that were instead forwarded to political parties and media instead. I think that speaks to peoples’ trust in EC, to whitewash, delay, and ignore.
“‏ @SusanDelacourt:

Mayrand finds “troubling” the sweeping allegations being made about voter irregularities. Cites Scarborough, Eglinton examples. ”

#PROC Mayrand admits more is known publicly about Guelph because @stphnmaher & @glen_mcgregor did their jobs well and got court docs.

NDP asks ‘can a General election be called’?
“800 complaints or so, cuts across pretty much the whole country, 10 provinces and 1 territory.” – Mayrand
a particular type of phone calls.
He won’t say it’s more than one person responsible for the phone calls.

@KarynFAQMP:

Mayrand: says challenging elxn a matter for the courts, not ElxnCan, would have to prove results were effected #cdnpoli

@marcgarneau asks Mayrand about Rogers IP provided by Meier. Mayrand declines to answer question. #PROC #RoboCon

Reclaim Democracy ‏ @Colettestweeter:

#cpc flailing about with possible data errors in #EC database sounds like they are trying to make excuses in advance of even being accused!

Kady:
“There were definitely calls that were wrongly placed in the name of other people,” Mayrand tells Williamson – including Elections Canada. Williamson assures him that he wasn’t trying to diminish that aspect of the case. (Oh, he was too, but forgive him — he’s likely being buried in rapid response talking points from the powers that be at PMO.)

MP Albrecht now using Mayrand’s words last year against him, when CEO thought #elxn41 was fair and results sound and trustworthy.
CPC MP tries to say he’s not minimizing the seriousness of the hundreds of specific complaints, while he’s saying there’s less than 1 out of 100 polls that got a complaint. I have bad words for Albrecht, that I’ve suppressed. Lukiwski also waving his hands around while saying “not trying to minimize”!

@journo_dale:

Garneau not sure about #CPC narratives of “one complaint is too many” while also trying to minimise issue. #RoboCon #cdnpoli

Tom, whose riding was robocalled, says there’s only been 4 complaints per riding, on average, so how could the result be overturned? Mayrand says court decides, not him. If the result was affected. But the MP who wins the poll is NOT the only result of an election. Percentage of vote determines deposit refund, and $2/vote also.

Mayrand says the court must decide based on evidence presented, not his certification of results last year before the investigation bore evidence.

While I was away:

@glen_mcgregor:

Pressed by CPC about errors in voter list, Mayrand: “Calls made on behalf of Elxn Canada are not errors. That is a deliberate attempt.”

Mayrand thinks electronic voting will restore Canadians’ faith in electoral results. He has his head up his poll. Computerized interference in our election is why #RoboCon is such a huge scandal with potentially so few organizers of the conspiracy.

@MPLaurieHawn blames media “circus”, which is the same line used by disgraceful Conservatives such as Klem, who blame the media for focusing on big scandal news.

Glen McGregor ‏ @glen_mcgregor
Mayrand: “We know 6700 calls were placed from the famous (450) ph.number. We got 70 complaints. We know that many people don’t complain.“

Math moment for Tom and the “Unreported Crimes are High”-Conservatives to consider:
6,700/70 = 96. Multiply that number with the 800 specific complaints received by Elections Canada to obtain an approximation of the number of robocalls country wide: 76,600

Let’s assume that 3% of the calls were effective at making someone miss their chance to vote for a non-CPC candidate. 76600 * 0.03 = 2298 Canadians may have been diverted (using these assumptions which are up for debate). The Conservative majority depended on only ~6500 votes in specific ridings. (See comments for assumption of 2%)

Kady:
Oh, and now, Dean Del Mastro will play us off with a petulant tirade against “damaging” leaks from Elections Canada — as per unnamed reporters who have apparently complained about such to Del Mastro. Mayrand points out that Del Mastro’s charge appears to be a vague allegation itself, prompting laughter from everyone but Del Mastro. Don’t mess with Marc Mayrand. He may look like just another bureaucrat, but he has bite.

Oh, one final motion — it seems that the elections commissioner will soon be invited to appear before this very same committee – and not on a budget day, even! Oh, how exciting. With that, we’re done. I take back everything I said about this likely proving to be anticlimactic. A most enlightening outing was, it seems, had by all! (I do hope that includes liveblog readers too.)

Kady: “As I leave #PROC , I pass Tom Lukiwski denouncing “allegations”, and using his ‘4 per riding’ math to downplay the 200 [ridings] number.”

What did I write two weeks ago?
“@jimbobbysez @wicary If 82 ridings affected, that’s more than 4 people per riding making a formal complaint, a year later. #RoboCon”

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Ned Franks thinks the RCMP must be involved already to make the committee useful.

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@KarynFAQMP:
Mayrand: On Saanich-Gulf Islands: Commissioner was not able to gather enough evidence to support allegations of impersonating #NDP #cdnpoli

I find it angering that the Saanich-Gulf Islands investigation into fake NDP robocalls during the 2008 campaign has been closed! The perpetrators of that crime got away with it, and given more recent evidence, and context, will Elections Canada reopen that investigation? Were phone records pulled? Why was the file closed when the guilty remain at large?