ConCalls: Conclusions You Can Confirm Using CIMS Computer #RoboCon #cdnpoli

Stephen Taylor was confused this morning. If he read my blog instead of dismissing me as a bother, he wouldn’t be so confused. He thought the Federal Court Robocalls judgement was saying that no Conservative could have been involved, because the judge had said he’d seen no evidence suggesting that. I can’t factually explain why the judge couldn’t make the logical inference that a secure database controlled tightly by the CPC, could only be used by authorized and known individuals. The judge ruled CIMS was the database used for election fraud in 2011. It is not a leap to conclude that unknown senior Conservatives were involved in election fraud.

.@stephen_taylor The judge can only consider evidence presented in court for the six ridings, not Guelph where @MichaelSona worked. #RoboCon—
John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) May 24, 2013

Taylor went on to ignore the fact that Guelph was not among the six ridings challenged by citizen applicants with the assistance of the Council of Canadians in Federal Court.

Judge Mosley himself praised the eight applicants for their virtue, while chastising the Conservative MPs. “It has seemed to me that the applicants sought to achieve and hold the high ground of promoting the integrity of the electoral process while the respondent MPs engaged in trench warfare in an effort to prevent this case from coming to a hearing on the merits.”

More shocking, Taylor floats an alternate theory that “Chinese hackers” could have been involved in the 2011 election fraud!

@RunnertheFirst it could have been Chinese hackers. Point is, there's no clear evidence that points to anyone.—
Stephen Taylor (@stephen_taylor) May 24, 2013

His theory is more shocking than the Conservative Party participating in widespread election fraud. He’s suggested that a foreign government (or foreign citizens) have conspired with (or against) the Conservative Party of Canada, to conceal the identity of specific Conservatives involved in telling citizens incorrect addresses of polling stations, in order to prevent Canadians from voting. Surely the politicians in charge of the Government of Canada would launch a full scale investigation to rule out this insane, severe, and remote possibility?

@FredDeLorey @pmoharper Are you pleased court found systematic fraud? If you cared about democracy, you'd demand an inquiry to get answers.—
Elizabeth May MP (@ElizabethMay) May 24, 2013

Mound of Sound has some sound conclusions you can make, instead of reading more of Stephen Taylor’s babbling.

[Justice Mosely wrote,] “I am satisfied that it has been established that misleading calls about the locations of polling stations were made to electors in ridings across the country, including the subject ridings, and that the purpose of those calls was to suppress the votes of electors who had indicated their voting preference in response to earlier voter identification calls,” and that “the most likely source of the information used to make the misleading calls was the CIMS database maintained and controlled by the CPC [Conservative Party of Canada], accessed for that purpose by a person or persons currently unknown to this Court.”

To recap, #CPC database used to commit electoral fraud, but records wiped by high level admin, so individual guilt can't be proven. #cdnpoli—
Ethan Cox (@EthanCoxMtl) May 24, 2013

CIMS used for electoral fraud. Then someone w admin access erased the records. #CPC may have gotten away w it, but aren't innocent. #cdnpoli—
Ethan Cox (@EthanCoxMtl) May 24, 2013

ConCalls: Fraud, but No Punishment #RoboCon #cdnpoli UPDATED

The Federal Court found there was fraud in the 2011 federal election (duh), but decided the irregularities were not enough to justify calling byelections to let a fair election play out in each of the six challenged ridings.

Six contested election results stand but Federal Court finds evidence of robocalls fraud in 2011 election. Story soon.—
Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) May 23, 2013

FUCK!

Updates likely…

UPDATE I:
The court by ruling there was a “concerted campaign” to defraud voters, has decided the Members of Parliament for those cheated out of a fair election. Votes have been denied to some Canadians twice now, first when they were tricked by malicious fraudsters backing the Conservative Party of Canada, and now again by the Federal Court for its refusal to uphold the intention of the law which is to make election fraud pointless because the benefactors of crime will not win.

Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled that the calls “struck at the integrity of the electoral process by attempting to dissuade voters from casting ballots for their preferred candidates. This form of ‘voter suppression,’ was, until the 41st General Election, largely unknown in this country.”

The evidence points to “a concerted campaign by persons who had access to a database of voter information maintained by a political party,” Mosley writes[...]

The cheaters won in 2011. They are still winning. This is an outrage! The Federal Court is corrupted somehow! This continues the outrage of the Supreme Court decision regarding Etobicoke Centre.

“I am satisfied, however, that the most likely source of the information used to make the misleading calls was the CIMS database maintained and controlled by the CPC, accessed for that purpose by a person or persons currently unknown to this court.”

Mosely blamed CIMS, but said there was not enough evidence to finger RMG, RackNine, or even the CIMS owning CPC! The impotent Elections Canada investigation drags on behind closed doors for years, so we may never know what stones they left unturned. The guilty are getting away from the Federal Court. The DPP has charged only 1 person, not mentioned in this Federal Court ruling so far as I can tell.

DuffyGate Continues #cdnpoli

This whole Mike Duffy scandal isn’t new, but it is big news now, because further details came to light last week. We learned that Duffy was basically bribed by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, so an audit wouldn’t continue or look so bad for the Duffster Fraduster senator.

Will the Conservatives survive the month intact? Sixth Estate assumes so, but I’m hoping this straw might finally break a little “Nasty Party” back. The Liberals eventually came down after people assumed they were so corrupt due to Adscam that anything would be better. Well, the Conservatives were anything back then, but now they are the party with the corrupt Senators stealing money from taxpayers because they fudge where they are living on government documents to get cushy, powerful jobs, and hundreds of thousands in expensed perks.

ConCalls: No Robo #RoboCon #cdnpoli

Good news on the RoboCon front: A team of talented, non-political-party-aligned Canadians is working to notify masses of people of the piles of evidence detailing the largest election fraud scheme in Canadian history.

There are piles of evidence. I’ve collected some of the most important bits here for you to listen to, or look through.

==

“The Conservative Party can say absolutely definitively it has no role in any of this.” – Stephen Harper, PM, in the House of Commons, 2012. Now it’s 2013, and Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona is charged with illegal robocalling.

Guelph was Ground Zero for the 2011 election fraud scandal, where Michael Sona ran official communications based on national campaign direction, and was pitched under the Conservative Campaign Bus (but he stood up and refused to lie down!) when Pierre Poutine was exposed by Postmedia.

“Agreed — we were told in media training at last Saturday’s Campaign Training session exactly that — ALL media must go through the “press secretary” — in our case, Michael [Sona],” Padanyi wrote [in Guelph to fellow Conservatives].

The email exchange also includes a note from Sona urging other campaign insiders to maintain a link with national headquarters.

“I am in National Caucus with the Minister until noon, so I would like until then to be able to see what the PM has to say to us in Cabinet before we submit this article,” Sona wrote.

“The Conservative Party can say absolutely definitively it has no role in any of this.”, said Stephen Harper, the liar.

ConCalls: No Robo One #RoboCon

I found a very worthwhile campaign to fight misinformation and apathy with robocalls and art by non-political-partiers, and hope you’ll assist with its crowdfunding. If you can’t make a PayPal payment, they’ll take Interac email money also if you ask.

I’ll be talking more about this in the morning, along with a few quotes that help show the Prime Minister lied last year about Conservative Party involvement in RoboCon.

==

I was looking back at my early predictions for what the 2012 Robocalls scandal could wind up doing to Canadian politics. A set of scenarios for an early general election could still potentially play out. Instead of more than 70 by-elections, we’ll only get 6. It will hopefully happen soon, and hopefully be enough to tip the scales.

“Some of his MPs could go rogue/independent,” and we haven’t even got to the point where they are doing that to protest the tarnishing of the Conservative Party brand with being closely associated with election fraud. Penashue is an albatross [around the Party's neck], and the Council of Canadians case is due back any time. Could the ruling be delayed because of the Labrador by-election?

ConCalls: Gone Since December #RoboCon

The verdict for the Robocalls Federal Court challenge is still not in, after the judge started deliberating and writing back in December. No rush, I guess. Why hurry when we’ve coped for 2 years already with a probably illegitimate government? They are willing to run a confessed election criminal in Labrador, and promise him a cabinet seat again should voters be stupid enough to vote for Penashue again. Fool them one, shame on the Cons; Fool them twice, it’s from working closely with Elections Canada and a compliant, docile media.

I’m pretty pissed off that it’s nearing the middle of May, and the Cons haven’t lost their six ill-gotten seats being challenged. The sooner that happens, the sooner that corrupt party can start to tear itself apart as the people with still an ounce of shame and honour try to weasel out from under the crashing brand.

==

It’s not easy being a DRO or Poll Clerk, especially when a nefarious party will throw gobs of illegitimate voters your way to clog things up when you’re already having a hard time keeping up. Online voting isn’t the answer, because an abusive and controlling person will use the situation to their advantage by viewing a victim’s vote.

ConCalls: Con-Friendly RMG and Debts to Canada #RoboCon #cdnpoli

One of the companies involved in defending the Conservative MPs who are having their riding wins challenged by the Council of Canadians and citizens of six ridings affected by fraudulent Elections Canada robocalls, is in financial difficulty.

Cash-strapped Tory fundraising company owes federal government $1 million in unpaid taxes. canada.com/news/Cash%2Bst… @stphnmaher—
Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) April 18, 2013

In documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court, iMarketing Solutions Group Inc. (IMSGI) lists the Canada Revenue Agency as well as the governments of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitoba among its creditors.

The company, through its subsidiary Responsive Marketing Group, continues to work as the Conservative Party’s telemarketing fundraiser. In the last election, RMG made millions of voter contact calls to identify Tory supporters and get them out to vote.

National Revenue Minister Gail Shea’s campaign in Prince Edward Island was among the 90 Conservative campaigns that hired RMG to make voter-contact calls during the election. She paid the company $7,500 for services, her financial return shows.

Officials in Shea’s department will now be responsible for collecting the money RMG owes the federal government after the party emerges from creditor protection.

RMG has been in the news quite a bit more than they’d care to be, I think.

ConCalls: 701 days, 1 charge, 234 ridings #RoboCon

It’s been more than 701 days since Elections Canada first became aware of a nation wide malicious robocalling scheme to misdirect non-Conservative voters away from legitimate polling stations for the May 2, 2011 election where Stephen Harper swept to power as a majority government.

I don’t think Michael Sona, who has been charged by Elections Canada, can be fully responsible for the robocalls made in Guelph on behalf of Conservative supporters, nor could he have had sole access to phone numbers used in other parts of the country. I’ve documented the technical reasons behind these beliefs, over the past 13 months.

@AlbertaGrl @Jonas_613 @bcbluecon I just want my name cleared, Jonas. How did those CIMS logs go missing? I couldn't have done that—
Michael Sona (@MichaelSona) March 28, 2013

“Sona is charged under a section of the Act that makes it illegal to “wilfully prevent or endeavour to prevent an elector from voting at an election.”” We won’t know until Sona is served with the papers charging him, but I’d be more satisfied if he were charged for his interference with a special poll that wasn’t set up to code.

Meanwhile, a perversely smug person who did have CIMS access to the phone numbers of Guelph, and a legitimate robocall account at RackNine, and happened to share a browser session with Pierre Poutine, and used the same anonymizing proxy service as Poutine did when making legitimate robocalls that did not show up on the initial campaign return… is going on vacation.

3… 2… 1… VACATION!!! Out of cell coverage, see ya on the flip side!—
Andrew Prescott (@ChristianConsrv) April 02, 2013

234 ridings are waiting for fair elections. Justice is taking a long nap while criminals gallivant about the country.

Sona’s lawyer, Norm Boxall, issued a statement late Tuesday afternoon.

“Although the charge is disappointing, it represents an opportunity for Mr. Sona to finally address the allegations in a court as opposed to in the media and resolve it permanently,” he said. “I cannot help but comment, that if the government was interested in the public being fully informed and the issue of robocalls being properly addressed, a Full Public Inquiry would be called, rather than a charge laid against a single individual who held a junior position on a single campaign and who clearly lacked the resources and access to the data required to make the robocalls. I am confident the public agrees.”

ADDED:

A statement by Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey said the party is pleased the investigation “has progressed to this point.”

“The Conservative Party of Canada ran a clean and ethical campaign and does not tolerate such activity. The party was not involved with these calls and those that were will not play a role in any future campaign.”

Oh really? So, how did Sona gain access to CIMS, DeLorey? And who or what enabled him to remove logs from CIMS to cover his tracks? Lying sacks of dog poo…

–

Be sure to watch Sixth Estate, as he always has interesting insights and research into stories like this one.

ConCalls: Penashue Campaigns Early #cdnpoli

Kady at CBC learned that Peter Penashue’s campaign started while he was still a Minister, suggesting the Conservatives calculated at least one last photo-op before he stepped down as Minister and an MP for Labrador.

Yesterday I sent an email to Elections Canada and three MPs, regarding the startling lack of charges laid against Penashue. I suspect Elections Canada is seeking a way to justify ordering only a “compliance agreement” where they will make him spend less than his limit in his upcoming election campaign, even though he blew past the last limit with impunity and tens of thousands of dollars!

It's not "transparent" for #ElxnCDN to fail to list Van Loan's compliance agreement: elections.ca/content.aspx?s… sixthestate.net/?p=2411 #cdnpoli—
Saskboy K. (@saskboy) March 20, 2013

Peter Van Loan got a slap on the wrist years ago for spending thousands above his campaign limit, which is a crime. Elections Canada, since 2000, has the option of simply contractually compelling a (potentially charged) criminal candidate with a warning called a compliance agreement.

Elections Canada fails to mention this sort of slap against Van Loan on their page of Compliance Agreements!

The Commissioner has been given authority to conclude a compliance agreement with anyone the Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds has committed, is about to commit or is likely to commit an act or omission that could constitute an offence.

A compliance agreement is a voluntary agreement between the Commissioner and the person (the contracting party) in which they agree to terms and conditions that the Commissioner considers necessary to ensure compliance with the Act.

A compliance agreement may include a statement by the contracting party in which he or she admits responsibility for the act or omission that constitutes the offence. It is important to note that the admission of responsibility does not constitute a criminal conviction by a Court of law and does not create a criminal record for the contracting party.

In order to maintain transparency, a notice that sets out the contracting party’s name, the act or omission in question and a summary of the compliance agreement is made public.

A summary of each compliance agreement is available below. These summaries are also published in the Canada Gazette.

A compliance agreement against Penashue (and his agent) would leave him without a criminal conviction that can bar him from running for public office in a time period. Penashue states on his pre-campaign website that he wants to be accountable to voters. Well, he has to be accountable to the LAW first. Elections Canada seems more willing to cop-out, than to actively police criminal candidates. People need to contact their MPs, and Elections Canada and share their outrage.

ConCalls: Penashue Campaigning Already

The corpse of Penashue’s political career isn’t even undead yet, and it’s already lurching forward thanks to a rich injection of Conservative Party of Canada franken-cash to repay a debt that wasn’t his to have. I guess the Cons can’t scrape up another zombie in Labrador to “work closely” with Elections Canada and to eventually provide another warm body on the backbenches (or Cabinet!) of Pet Cemetery Hill.

Alison summarizes what’s gone wrong with Canadian elections contested by contemptible Conservatives, and the perps walkin’ our streets.