The widening "robocall scandal" is deeply disturbing -- as is its media coverage.
The language we use to describe a situation, the words that a journalist uses in their coverage of an issue, literally frame the issue and how we think about it.
This isn't a story about "dirty tricks," it's about election fraud. This isn't "stupid," it's illegal. This isn't "folly," it was a deliberate, systematic, strategic, targeted campaign to steal the election. This isn't "voter suppression," it's stealing democracy.
We should not treat this as some petty misdemeanor. This is a grave threat to our very basic freedom. This is a threat to our democracy. This is corruption.
You would expect this in some tin-pot dictatorship--not in Canada.
The stakes are much, much higher than most people or commentators realize. Harper won his "majority" with 6,848 votes. That's the difference between a Conservative candidate getting elected and the second place candidate in the 14 closest races that the Conservatives "won."
For instance, in Nipissing-Timiskaming the Conservatives "won" the riding with a mere 18 votes. In Etobicoke Centre it was just 26 votes. Out of the 14.7 million votes cast across Canada that is an infinitesimally small margin for a majority -- it's 0.048 per cent.
What was the exact nature of the illegality? Liberal supporters in tightly fought ridings received pre-recorded messages on Election Day claiming to be from Elections Canada telling them that the location of their polling station had been changed. The Liberals claim it was a factor in losing 27 seats. The NDP is claiming it happened to them too. The Conservatives didn't need to misdirect very many voters in very many ridings with tight races to steal the 2011 election.
What is the impact of this illegal action? With a "majority" Harper has eliminated the gun registry. He has appointed 48 Conservative so far in the 105 seat Senate, and four of the nine Supreme Court of Canada justices. This issue is not just about some inconvenient phone calls, it's about subverting our democracy, it's about altering the outcome of the election. And it's about Harper remaking Canada in his own image.
This is the heart of the real story: It's about the Conservative's usurping the power of government.
There are a few important points to make about this scandal:
The Conservatives have proven they will happily break the law to win power
The Conservatives pleaded guilty to breaking campaign spending laws in 2006 in the election that brought Harper to power. The Conservative party violated election spending limits, exceeding the amount the party was allowed to spend by $1.3 million -- through an "in-and-out" scheme.
In the end the Conservatives pled guilty and got a $52,000 fine.
There was no appropriate consequence for the Conservatives breaking Canada's election law. The fine is a joke. The Conservatives spent $1.3 million more than allowed to by law, "won" the election, and paid a penalty of $52,000. The reward: gaining access to the levers of power and deciding how to spend the Government of Canada's $270.5 billion budget.
The case took five years to be resolved. By this time the Conservatives had been in power for five years and had appointed 48 Conservatives to the Senate.
The Conservatives strategy is clear: break the law, deny any wrong doing, frustrate and stall any investigation -- whether by Elections Canada or House of Commons committee -- and when the final decision is about to be rendered, plea bargain and pay a fine.
But here's the realpolitik of it: It's five years after the fact, the media isn't paying attention. It's been covered already. Meanwhile the Conservatives have been enjoying power for five years. The consequences are, well, inconsequential.
The electoral fraud efforts were part of a systemic Conservative strategy
The Conservatives are trying to claim that a single individual, Michael Sona, was responsible. Sona has worked for Conservative candidates, for a Conservative MP, and for a Minister in the Harper Government. He is not some uniformed, neophyte newbie. He is, however, the sacrifice the Conservatives are more than willing to offer to try and put this illegal action to bed. So Sona was fired last week from his position in Conservative MP Eve Adam's office.
Harper's style is one of systematic command and control. No messaging, no strategy, is executed without the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) vetting and approving it. This has become crystal clear during Harper's tenure. Lawrence Martin's book Harperland documents this in detail.
Young Sona, having worked for a so many different Harper Conservatives would have had this drilled into him. The fact that it has taken Elections Canada and the RCMP almost a year -- with their powers to investigate -- to uncover this scheme shows to what great length the Conservatives went to to hide this.
The consequences for this electoral fraud should match the crime: Criminal charges should be laid and by-elections called for every riding where electoral fraud occurred. Any person or firm involved should be barred from working in any election campaign ever again.
Follow Jim Harris on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@JimHarris
Elizabeth May: Election Scandals Didn't Start With Robocalls
Jennifer A. Smith: My name is Jennifer. I am a Robocaller.
Daniel D. Veniez: Goldman Sachs? Meet the Robocalls...
Gerry Nicholls: Why Harper is the Teflon Robot
Harper denies robocall charges, demands opposition show evidence
Harper denies Conservative link to fraudulent election 'robocalls ...
'Robocalls,' dirty campaign tricks hound Canadian government ǀ ...
Harper denies Conservative link to fraudulent election 'robocalls'
Please have a look at this petition.
I recieved a very strange phone call election day-- it was a recorded message, started out only in English, claiming it was from Elections Canada. Unfortunately I just hung up.
Listening to the Conservative Spin about how they campaign and treasure there DATA BASE. Makes me think that they are building a data base from records that come through the house of commons or constiuency offices. This would then be in violation of FREEDOM OF INFORMATION and PERSONAL PRIVACY ACT. It is my belief that my personal information is being shared by the conservatives in this data bank, any record of me should not be in this bank. I have never been contacted by the thugs running that machine and I should not be in that bank.
Stephen Harpers Chief of Staff Ian Brodie says that the election day robocalls warrant a “huge investigation.”
Only an Independent Judicial Inquiry will expose the wrongdoing as all Election Canada investigations are conducted in secret. After watching the CBC video, please read and share my follow on blog to this one demanding a Judicial Inquiry at http://huff.to/AiVerD
This sort of behavior is an attack on all citizens regardless if it happened in their riding. This is underhanded, dirty sleaze perpetrated in an effort for personal gain.
Considering that solidarity with the "party' seems to be paramount these days is is laughable to think the boys at the top were unaware of what happened. It would take one deft stroke to fix this so that no other elected official ever thinks of treading this road.
Immediate dismissal, never being allowed to run for ANY elected position of any sort, EVER, and forfeiture of MP pension. Oh, and the higher the rank the longer the jail term in our lovely penal system. If it is a Conservative they should be automatically double bunked.
The subversion of the conservative party by the ideologues in the Alliance/Reform group makes me throw up in my mouth At one point the Conservatives were a viable alternative. No more though.
Every vote on a bill in the House of Commons should be a free vote. Vote for the people not party line or ideology.
Just my 2 cents
Also known as "business as usual" to our Conservative Overlords. Harper must go.
As for Peter's credentials has won a court case all the way up to and including the Supreme Court of Canada on election law which forced changes to the Canada Election Act.
Read it at http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=185602
Peter Rosenthal ground breaking legal work has taken him all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada where he has won and forced changes to the Canada Elections Act.
I'm waiting for something concrete to come out of all of this. If nothing does, then I certainly do hope there's a lot of pressure to put some legislation in place to prevent what's happening today from happening tomorrow.
Problem is, based on the Conservatives being guilty of breaking election law thus far; they only thing they were found guilty was a misinterpretation of the law: IE, exploiting a loophole that exists in the wording of the law. They were pretty much found "retroactively" guilty. Was the hole patched up? Not that I know about, and I can only assume that the ruling sets the precedence despite the loophole.
I don't hold high hopes that anything solid comes up against the Conservatives based on the nature of how the robocalls were executed; the trail is going to end up dead at the disposable cell phones.
Though as for what it does to the environment of politics, our only hope is the lid is ripped off all the parties and every single cent is traced to whom is hired to do what, and it remains this way for all elections. I suspect that such an action would be extremely devastating to the Conservatives, but suspicion isn't anything solid or concrete either.
strike 1: sending election calls to even conservative voters
strike 2: sending misinforming calls to non conservative voters
strike 3: saying u did nothing wrong, and refusing to give phone records.
strike 4: taking your comment back and semi agreeing with verification but in your tricky conservative lets wait 6 months so i can finish my agenda.
strike 5: dropping your case against elections canada as they now have a case against u!!!
you look like a teenager who stole his dads car and is trying to park it in the exact same spot but it wont be the same because you did steal it!!!
and we see that now, trust is gone. Stephen harper will definitely not be regaining trust this time. and will skid by the seat of his pants not to have another federal election. Even though i consider these robo calls and scandals to be in contempt of parliament.
Because no Canadian trusts that your parliament is even legitimate!!!
bill c-10 should not pass because your government does not deserve a majority mr harper and you know that!
I'm honestly very worried for the future of our democracy.
The following is modified from a Facebook post by Douglas Connors:
Response #1: We ran a clean and ethical campaign! The NDP is stirring stuff up. Problem solved.
Response #2: Though we ran a clean and ethical campaign, we found the guy responsible, some 23 year-old staffer. He's been fired. Problem solved.
Response #3: Though we quickly found who did it, he is “totally unknown to anybody around the Prime Minister" -- The SUN's Michael Coren -- If there is anyone else, that applies to them. Problem solved.
Response #4: Elections Canada changed over 120 polling stations in the days prior to the election. The calls must have been from them. Problem Solved.
Whazzat? Elections Canada NEVER places such calls? EVER!!?? (back to the drawing board)
Response #5: OK. IF there is anything that happened, it was ONLY in one place.
What's that you say? Live-calls from Thunder Bay? (back to the drawing board)