Robocall Scandal

Misleading robocalls went to voters ID'd as non-Tories

Pattern of calls points to party's voter identification database, opposition says

By Terry Milewski, CBC News

Posted: Mar 15, 2012 9:02 PM ET

Last Updated: Mar 16, 2012 9:27 AM ET

An investigation by CBC News has turned up voters all over Canada who say the reason they got robocalls sending them to fictitious polling stations was that they'd revealed they would not vote Conservative.

Although the Conservative Party has denied any involvement in the calls, these new details suggest that the misleading calls relied on data gathered by, and carefully guarded by, the Conservative Party.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand announced Thursday that he now has "over 700 Canadians from across the country" who allege "specific circumstances" of fraudulent or improper calls. CBC News examined 31 ridings where such calls have been reported and found a pattern: those receiving those calls also had previous calls from the Conservative Party to find out which way they would vote.

Tim McCoy of the riding of Ottawa-Vanier was one of those who complained to Elections Canada. He received a bogus recorded message pretending to be from Elections Canada — but he also had two previous calls from the Conservatives.

"They did call me back from the Conservative Association and ask if they could count on my support," said McCoy, who declined to pledge his vote. He thinks that's why someone tried to mislead him.

"It looks like a hijacking of the democratic process," he added. "I would like to know who made the call pretending to be from Elections Canada and I don't really care which way the finger points. I would like to know."

Elections Canada says it never calls voters at all. However, it is only now emerging that calls impersonating Elections Canada followed previous calls by Conservative workers asking which way voters were leaning. That suggests that the "Elections Canada" calls, which are illegal, came from people with access to data gathered by the Conservative Party, which carefully controls access to it.

Asked about that, party spokesman Fred Delorey had no comment and declined an interview.

Election day calls

The pattern of legitimate so-called "Voter ID" calls, followed by bogus "Elections Canada" calls, occurs in ridings across the country.

Charles Cochrane of Saint John, N.B., made it very clear to the Conservatives that they did not have his vote. Then, on election day, he said, "The phone rang and it was a recorded message. This is Elections Canada calling, your polling station has now changed." He checked. It had not changed.

From the outset, the Conservative Party leadership has insisted it had no involvement in these calls.

"The Conservative party can say absolutely, definitively, it has no role in any of this," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, calls claims to the contrary "baseless smears."

However, opposition leaders say the scheme could never have gone forward without callers having access to the Conservatives' proprietary database on voter intentions. Known as "CIMS," the database assigns a "smiley" face to supporters, and a "sad" face to non-Conservatives. Liberal and NDP politicians say it would make no sense to call randomly, since many of the voters misled would be Conservatives.

"Who had access to the database? Who wrote the scripts?" asked the NDP's Charlie Angus in question period Thursday. He did not receive an answer.

Lori Bruce of Fredericton thinks she has a good idea. She said the Conservatives knew she was not a supporter, and called her more than once — even identifying themselves while misdirecting her to the wrong polling station.

Voters from ridings across the country who spoke to CBC News describe receiving misleading automated calls with incorrect polling station changes after receiving Conservative Party calls. (Canadian Press)

Bruce said she received a call stating that it was "on behalf of Stephen Harper and Keith Ashfield for the Conservative party."

"At that point, he told me that my voting location had changed. I, at that point, said no, it's at the same location it always is."

Bruce then Googled the caller's number and found out it was the Conservative campaign office. Still, she wanted to be sure.

"I called the number back," she says, "and I just got an answering machine message, saying thank you for calling the Conservative Party."

Peggy Walsh Craig of North Bay, Ont., told a similar story — but received two separate calls.

"The first one was a few weeks before the election and it simply asked me one question and that was, was I going to vote for the Conservative Party — and I indicated no."

Only later did she get an anonymous second call, she said.

'Polling stations have changed'

"That was, it was Elections Canada calling and that they — due to higher than anticipated voter turnout, the polling station had been changed."

Once again, it hadn't changed at all. The same thing happened to Astrid Dimond of Mission, B.C.

Dimond said a caller told her that, "We're just phoning to let you know that the polling stations have changed."

Dimond knew better.

"And I said, no they haven't, and I hung up on her."

Dimond added that she tracked the call back to its source. The misleading call "came from the same number that all the other calls had come from, which I found out was the Conservative Party."

CBC News came up with many voters with similar complaints, including Saj Aziz in the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, Carmen Leveille in Victoria, Gordon Webb in Guelph, May Beland in Willowdale and Susan Lapell in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's.

Aziz said a "research company" tried to find out who he was voting for as part of an "independent poll." When he declined to commit to the Conservatives, he was told that "a supervisor" would call him back. Then, he got a call from the Conservative party, trying to win him over. When that didn't work, he finally got a call saying that his polling station had moved. However, he'd already voted in the advance poll, at the right place.

In Guelph — where the robo-call scandal began — Gordon Webb says he made it clear to the Conservatives that he would not vote for them. He, too, got a misdirection call telling him to go to a phoney polling station. At least a hundred people showed up there and some of them angrily gave up on voting, blaming Elections Canada.

As for the next step, all of these voters say they want Elections Canada to get to the bottom of it.

"There definitely should be punishment," said Lori Bruce of Fredericton. "They should be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

In North Bay, where the Liberals lost by just 18 votes, Peggy Walsh Craig said, "I care a lot about democracy and so I'm appalled that this is happening."

"It raises enough questions that it makes me wonder about the results here."

Reflections

1.            What is the link to Crisis Management?

The story talks about a scandal that has been dubbed the “Robocall scandal” in which voters in Canada’s last Federal election received misleading phone calls that had an automated message stating that their polling station had changed. According to the story, only voters that had identified themselves as non-Conservative party supporters received these calls. Apparently, the only people that were called had received previous calls from the Conservative Party asking for support and had refused to support them.

2.         What stage of Crisis Management does the system appear to be at?

This is a crisis for Elections Canada because they are responsible for ensuring a fair and democratic voting process in Canada. It is a risk for the Conservative party as it calls their ethics during an election campaign into question. This is an issue for the Canadian public as it creates distrust in the Elections process in Canada. This is an issue for the other parties in Canada such as the NDP and Liberals because now they are left questioning the results of the last election and if they were cheated out of winning seats in the House of Commons.

3.         How well does the system appear to be handling the situation?

Elections Canada is in the process of investigating this scandal gathering data from the public to see how many Canadians received these calls.. The Conservative party has denied any involvement in this and the spokesperson for the party refused to comment on the situation. The NDP and Liberals are using this scandal as an opportunity to make the Conservatives look bad to the public and to push their own political agendas.

4.         What level of crisis preparedness does the system appear to have?

Elections Canada was not prepared for this crisis. They were caught by surprise when this story was published by investigative journalists. They need to put systems in place that prevent something like this from happening in future elections. The public expects Elections Canada to uphold the democratic process and this has harmed their trust in Elections Canada and the Conservative Party. The Conservatives seem unprepared for this crisis as they are refusing to comment on it. They should have a spokesperson and a crisis communication team to inform the public that they had nothing to do with this scandal and try to show the public that they are also deeply concerned by the fact that something like this happened. The Liberals and NDP should monitor their own practices during elections and do an audit of their campaigning practices during the last election to ensure that they catch any signals that could become a crisis for them as well.

5.         What personal reactions/feelings does the description trigger in you?

This story made me feel angry as a voter. This calls into question the very basic notion of democracy that comes along with living in a developed country such as Canada. Having been born in Pakistan, this type of corruption is not uncommon there during elections. To see that unethical behaviour is also being practiced in Canada by a major party is a bit disconcerting. It makes me distrust the electoral system and it slightly discourages me from voting in the next election because I am questioning the fairness of the process and it makes me wonder about what else is happening that the public is not aware of.

6.         What advice would you offer to those involved?

I feel in this situation, Elections Canada needs to take the lead in investigating this situation and they need to find the people or party responsible and make an example of them so that something like this is less likely to happen in the future. This is part of their responsibility as the regulatory body during the elections and it would also help the public gain back some of their trust in the electoral process. The public should pressure Elections Canada into investigating this situation and should also contact them if they were called by the automated messaging service during the election in order to help them find the culprits. The Conservatives should put together a crisis management team and go through scenarios of if they are found guilty in this scandal and prepare their crisis communication and have an effective spokesperson who has previous experience in dealing with crises and who is trusted by the public. This spokesperson should also be able to withstand the pressure that they will receive from the media if the Conservative party is found guilty in this scandal.

I feel the other parties in Canada such as the Liberals and NDP should do an internal scan to find any weaknesses or vulnerabilities that could turn into crisis for them and address them early. The best way to contain a crisis is to “fess up to it” and tell the public what they are doing about it to ensure it does not happen again.