Election fraud in Canada?

[dachinesedude]

heard it on the beat this morning, i think its more serious than what the media is perceiving it as, but i guess we're fucked no matter who we vote for anyways so its irrelevant

Robocalls trigger legal challenges in 7 ridings - Manitoba - CBC News

The election results in seven federal ridings are being challenged in court because of robocalls that voters say tried to misdirect them to wrong polling stations.

The Council of Canadians is supporting the legal action, launched by nine individuals, that was filed in accordance with the Elections Canada Act. The legislation allows any voter that is eligible to cast a ballot in his or her riding to contest election results on the grounds that there were irregularities, fraud or corrupt or illegal practices that affected the result of the election.

Steven Shryban, a lawyer that acts on behalf of the social justice group, said he believes those grounds exist in the seven ridings that are subject to the Federal Court challenges.

Shryban said the legal action is not meant to determine who is behind the robocalls, Elections Canada is already investigating hundreds of complaints, but to trigger byelections.

"The interesting thing about an application under the Elections Canada Act is that it really doesn't matter who may have stolen your democratic franchise, the object of the exercise is to get it back," Shryban said in an interview with CBC News.

When the robocall story first broke, the Council of Canadians asked its members to come forward with any reports of receiving live or automated calls that were harassing or misleading in nature. The organization said it received hundreds of reports, and now nine people are moving forward with the legal challenges.

The seven ridings are:

Don Valley East in Ontario, won by Conservative MP Joe Daniel by 870 votes.
Nipissing-Timiskaming in Ontario, won by Conservative MP Jay Aspin by 18 votes.
Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar in Saskatchewan, won by Conservative Kelly Block by 538 votes.
Vancouver Island North in B.C., won by Conservative John Duncan by 1,827 votes.
Winnipeg South Centre in Manitoba, won by Conservative MP Joyce Bateman by 722 votes.
Elmwood-Transcona in Manitoba, won by Conservative MP Lawrence Toet by 300 votes.
Yukon won by Conservative Ryan Leef by 132 votes.
The Council of Canadians said voter suppression techniques were used in all seven ridings and it has expert academic evidence that backs up the claim that those techniques affect voter turnout.

The group's executive director, Garry Neil, said at a news conference Tuesday that each case is different but most of the nine people received a call in advance of the May 2 election asking if they would be voting Conservative. Then either on election day or a few days before, they received automated messages that said the caller was phoning from Elections Canada and that due to higher than expected voter turnout, their polling station had been changed and a new location was given. "It was definitely a co-ordinated campaign that involved misdirection locally," Neil said.


Peggy Walsh Craig, one of the applicants, also reported her experience to Elections Canada in early March. She has been interviewed by an investigator working on the robocalls case. Elections Canada currently is investigating a specific case in Guelph, Ont., but has received complaints from across Canada.

The voter from North Bay said she has heard of similar complaints from people she knows in her Nippising-Timiskiming riding.

The court can dismiss the complaints, but if it agrees with the applicants and finds there was fraud or irregularities, it could declare the results of the election in those ridings null and void.

An appeal of that decision would then go to the Supreme Court.

The legal challenges now filed in court come just days ahead of an appearance by the head of Elections Canada, Marc Mayrand, at a parliamentary committee. He will be testifying on Thursday about allegations of wrongdoing during last May's election.

[Jayboogz]

Dem Legitemate gangstaz.

[TheNewGirl]

This has been going on for weeks and the Tories have been frantically trying to keep media attention away from it but Election's Canada's finally agreed to investigate (even though Harper said he wouldn't).

[StylinRed]

yeah been following this for awhile

surprised it doesn't seem to be a bigger issue and that a lot of people still seem clueless about it; especially with the protests that have gone on


cons are trying to point fingers and cause confusion about who's responsible -_- come on



it is to my understanding that those 7 ridings are simply what have been confirmed so far and there are accusations of more cases elsewhere

[Hondaracer]

no biggie, spend another 100 mill on another election to have the same crooks different name reigning..

[StylinRed]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

no biggie

this is something we protest and use to go to war over when other countries do it

[Hondaracer]

every party in Canada is basically the same shit, you have ruling party and opposition, opposition opposes everything regardless of rhyme or reason and the ruling party attempts to make the most neutral moves possible to manoeuvre themselves for the next election. realistically this is a "big deal" but in the big picture of the structure of the government it's not, distribute those seats amongst the opposition and you still have a majority government

its the same thing as the stupid HST, uneducated people are going to get their panties in a bunch over the biased stories that come out, people will call for all hell for re-elections etc that will cost tax payers millions and millions of dollars, the outcome will be relatively the same as it was prior to the controversy, and the country as a whole will be set back because of it

[threezero]

This is nothing new election fraud occur on some degree in all "democratic" countries.

[trancehead]

douche or turd sandwich. make your pick guys

[cressydrift]

^ Pft, this isn't America. Here we have, Douche, Turd Sandwich, Tampon, and Poutine.

[ree666]

that explains the HST

[goo3]

Wake us up when Elections Canada is done their investigation. Until then, why should we give two shits about what fanboys of any political party wants to claim about the other side?

[mr_chin]

Either way we're paying taxes. Who cares who wins.

[GGnoRE]

^ because taxation without representation is fuking bull

[Teh Doucher]

Originally Posted by GGnoRE

^ because taxation without representation is fuking bull

what representation?