SOCIOPATH: lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.
NOTE: There are the robocalls
- from the Federal Elections (awaiting court decision).
- Now there is this new round of Federal robocalls related to the changing of electoral boundaries in the province of Saskatchewan.
Past postings on robocalls can be found by going to the right-hand sidebar.
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Hard to believe: Harper says they were following the rules; nothing wrong here.
The forensic analysis of voice in the Saskatchewan robocall identifies it as belonging to the owner of RackNine Inc. The Conservatives are caught with their pants down – – they definitely are behind the Saskatchewan robocalls. It becomes more difficult for citizens to believe that the Conservatives had no association with the robocalls during previous federal elections – – the players are the same; the tactics and denials of guilt are the same.
Once again I’d like to salute THE SAME TWO JOURNALIST HEROES: Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Ottawa Citizen
CONTENTS
- Tories now admit they sent Saskatchewan robocalls. Forensic expert links company behind latest push poll to firm behind Pierre Poutine calls (Regina Leader Post, February 5, 2013)
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Liberals say CRTC should investigate robocalls over Saskatchewan riding boundaries (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, February 6) (Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski deserves credit for saying that the robocalls were wrong.)
- Saskatchewan ridings robocall ‘followed the rules,’ prime minister says (Ottawa Citizen, February 6, 2013 8:02 PM)
- Conservatives deny involvement in Saskatchewan robocall defending “Saskatchewan values” (Ottawa Citizen), February 1, 2013
NOTE:
The Edmonton Journal coverage of Harper’s denial (http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Libs+CRTC+should+investigate+robocalls+over+Sask+riding/7928613/story.html).
It is different from others. It lets Harper get away with shifting the debate away from right and wrong, to the Commission responsible for the electoral boundaries.
EXCERPT:
The Conservatives admitted being responsible for the so-called “push poll” calls to would-be voters in Saskatchewan, which said some proposed changes to electoral boundaries would undermine provincial values.
The computer-generated calls identified no political party, saying only that they came from a company called Chase Research. That was a mistake, the Conservatives say.
In the face of a barrage of opposition questions Wednesday in the House of Commons, however, Harper insisted the party broke no rules.
“The party followed the rules and our position to the public is very clear on the commission,” he said. “The commission is working to re-draw the electoral boundaries according to the law.”
He said it’s part of the normal effort to produce new electoral boundaries.
“We are simply operating within the process,” he said.
Rae described the calls as nothing short of a Conservative effort to gerrymander Saskatchewan ridings.
But Harper said the commission expects to hear outside comment. “Those commissions accept and expect input from parliamentarians, from political parties and from the general public.”
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1. Tories now admit they sent Saskatchewan robocalls Forensic expert links company behind latest push poll to firm behind Pierre Poutine calls (Regina Leader Post), February 5, 2013
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Tories+admit+they+sent+Saskatchewan+robocall/7922470/story.html
(There’s a picture of RackNine owner, Matt Meier at the link)
By Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Ottawa Citizen
Matt Meier is the owner of Edmonton-based RackNine Inc., the company whose equipment was used to launch more than 7,000 misleading calls directing voters in Guelph to the wrong polling station in the 2011 federal election.
OTTAWA — A forensic voice-analysis expert has matched a voice recording from a mysterious company that sent out a robocall “push poll” about Saskatchewan riding boundaries to the firm used to send out the infamous “Pierre Poutine” calls in the last election.
After initially denying any involvement, the Conservatives said Tuesday that they had failed to identify themselves as the source of the voice-broadcast to Saskatchewan residents last week.
The party blamed an “internal miscommunication” for the failure to identify itself and the origin of the call.
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale filed a complaint with the CRTC Tuesday morning, alleging the failure to name the source broke telemarketing rules — the same offence for which Liberal MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association was fined last year.
The pre-recorded message sent to some Saskatchewan residents last Thursday told recipients that proposed changes to the province’s riding boundaries would pit urban areas against rural ones, and offend “Saskatchewan values.”
The robocall was presented as an interactive public-opinion survey — an American tactic called “push polling” — but appeared designed to rally opposition to changes to the ridings that would help opposition parties at the expense of Conservatives.
The originating number of the call, shown on recipients’ call displays, was answered by a generic voice recording saying no one was available to answer.
But on Monday, a recorded male voice on the outgoing message identified the line as belonging to “Chase Research,” a company that does not seem to exist in Saskatchewan.
The voice sounded similar to the voice of Matt Meier, owner of Edmonton-based RackNine Inc., the company whose equipment was used to launch more than 7,000 misleading calls directing voters in Guelph to the wrong polling station in the 2011 federal election.
The same voice and company name, Chase Research, was also heard on another number affiliated with a “push poll” sent out to Alberta residents during last year’s provincial election. That call offered a highly prejudicial poll asking voters which kinds of tax increases proposed by Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford they favoured.
The Wildrose Party was suspected by some of involvement in the call but its origin was never confirmed. Meier’s company has worked for Wildrose as well as the federal Conservatives.
After the Citizen made inquiries of Meier, the outgoing messages on the two numbers were replaced by out-of-service messages.
The Citizen and Postmedia News then asked U.S.-based forensic audio expert Ed Primeau to analyze the recordings of the outgoing Chase Research phone message and compare them with the outgoing voice message on Meier’s own phone.
Primeau, who has testified as an expert witness in dozens of cases in American courts and overseas, is a board member of the American Board of Recorded Evidence and a member of the American College for Forensic Examiners International.
He said he is 95-per-cent certain that Meier recorded the outgoing messages used by the mysterious Chase Research.
“He has a distinct style of speaking,” he said. “Everybody has a distinct style. It’s like a fingerprint.”
The cadence of one phrase used in the messages — “and reason for call” — is identical, he said.
A frequency analysis confirms the match, he said. “They’re almost identical in the spectrum,” he said. “I’m looking at these and it’s insane how close they are.”
In an email Saturday, Meier had offered a cryptic response when asked if his voice-broadcasting companies, RackNine and 2call.ca, were involved in the Saskatchewan call.
“Thanks for thinking of me, but your fascination is unwarranted.”
On Tuesday, after the voice analysis, Meier failed to respond to repeated calls and emails to himself, his company and his lawyer, R. Justin Matthews, seeking comment.
Matthews told Postmedia he “has not been retained to respond to your inquiries.”
Saskatchewan Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski told the Regina Leader Post last week that Saskatchewan Tory MPs were not responsible for the calls.
“Certainly polling is not something I’m doing and I’m pretty sure I’d know if any of my colleagues was doing something like that and I haven’t heard a thing. That’s just something I wouldn’t have done anyway.”
Conservative party spokesman Fred DeLorey also originally denied the party was involved, writing in an email Friday, “We are not polling.”
On Tuesday, however, after the Citizen and Postmedia received the forensic analysis, and sent emails to the party and Meier, DeLorey sent a release to the parliamentary press gallery saying that the party did make the calls.
“There was an internal miscommunication on the matter, and the calls should have been identified as coming from the Conservative Party,” said DeLorey.
Throughout the ongoing robocalls investigation, which stems from the May, 2011 federal election, Meier has maintained that he never knew his robcalling service was being misused by a person known to him as “Pierre Jones.” He has co-operated with Elections Canada investigators by providing electronic records to help find the person.
Meier recently settled a defamation claim he had launched against New Democrat MP Pat Martin for comment Martin made about RackNine in the days after the robocalls scandal broke.
Reached Monday, Martin said under the terms of the settlement he can’t discuss any payment, but a source says he is trying to raise $100,000 to help with it. He said he has already received a $10,000 donation from his former carpenters’ union. All the donations will be reported to the ethics commissioner and those over $500 will be publicly disclosed.
An independent commission has proposed boundary changes that would create five entirely urban ridings in Regina and Saskatoon, instead of the mixed rural-urban seats now in place. Conservatives are opposed to the changes, saying they would divide the province and create unfeasibly large rural ridings.
Goodale, the only opposition MP from Saskatchewan, said the prejudicial tone of the push poll was part of what seems to be “abusive anti-democratic behaviour” by the Conservative Party.
“Their political objectives trump every ethical rule and every regulation of the CRTC and decent behaviour,” he said.
Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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2. Liberals say CRTC should investigate robocalls over Saskatchewan riding boundaries (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, February 6)
By Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Postmedia News, with files from The Canadian Press February 6, 2013
(INSERT: I think Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski deserves credit for saying that the robocalls were wrong.)
OTTAWA — Conservative political director Jenni Byrne is ultimately responsible for a “deceptive” push poll conducted in Saskatchewan without the knowledge of Tory MPs, Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski told reporters on Wednesday.
After first denying any involvement, the party acknowledged Tuesday it was behind the poll, blaming it on “internal miscommunication.”
The call was a fake poll seemingly designed to help build opposition to a riding redistribution in the works that Conservatives oppose.
On Wednesday, Lukiwski told a call-in show on CBC Radio that Byrne, the director of political operations for the party, is ultimately responsible.
“I don’t know which party official it would be, but I know that Jenni Byrne, who is the executive director, said, well, ultimately the buck stops with her,” he said. “She would take full responsibility.”
His comments indicate that the “push poll” robocall — an ethically dubious tactic more commonly seen in U.S. politics — originated with the federal party in Ottawa and not with local party officials acting on their own.
Byrne, who keeps a low public profile, is seen in Ottawa as a talented, tough and formidable operative, fiercely loyal to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Lukiwski said he has told the party that he is not happy with the calls.
“The problem is they were not identified as Conservative party, and that I find, and I’ve expressed this to the party, not only disappointing but I wasn’t very happy with it,” he said. “Let’s put it that way.”
In the face of a barrage of opposition questions Wednesday in the House of Commons, however, Harper insisted the party broke no rules.
“The party followed the rules and our position to the public is very clear on the commission,” he said. “The commission is working to re-draw the electoral boundaries according to the law.”
He said it’s part of the normal effort to produce new electoral boundaries.
“We are simply operating within the process,” he said.
Last week, Lukiwski told reporters that neither he nor his Conservative colleagues from Saskatchewan had anything to do with the calls.
On Tuesday, the Citizen and Postmedia News linked the calls to Conservative voter contact firm RackNine by asking an American forensic audio expert to match voice-mail messages from Matt Meier, the CEO of RackNine, with anonymous voice-mail messages from Chase Research, the company that carried out the push polls.
After the analysis was complete, the Citizen and Postmedia News asked the party and Meier to confirm that they had nothing to do with the calls. Soon afterwards, the party issued a statement acknowledging that it was, in fact, behind the calls.
Meier has not responded to repeated calls or emails requesting comment, but when reached Wednesday, he said, “I appreciate your call, Glen, have a nice day,” then hung up.
A search through the registry of Alberta trade names and corporations failed to turn up any company called Chase Research.
Meier and RackNine first came to public prominence a year ago, when it was revealed that his firm was used to send the “Pierre Poutine” message that sent voters in Guelph to the wrong polling stations in the May 2011 federal election.
He has stated that he had no idea his system was being used for unethical purposes and has helped Elections Canada investigate the calls, providing electronic records that helped investigators link the calls to an Internet IP address.
Saskatchewan’s one opposition MP, Liberal Ralph Goodale, on Tuesday sent a letter to the CRTC asking for an investigation based on his suspicion the call broke telemarketing rules by failing to identify the originator.
Goodale says the robocalls are a deplorable attempt to undermine the work of the federal commission drafting new riding boundaries in the province.
He says the federal telecommunications regulator should investigate the calls.
Since the summer, Conservative MPs have repeatedly responded to questions about the robocalls scandal by pointing out that the only finding of wrongdoing over election calls was against Guelph Liberal MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association.
The association paid a fine for a CRTC violation over an call that attacked the Conservative candidate for his position on abortion, without identifying the Valeriote campaign as the sponsor of the ad.
In question period Wednesday, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair pressed Harper on whether he knew about these “fraudulent” robocalls made using a fake company name.
Harper did not say whether he was aware of the calls.
Conservative MP Brad Trost, whose Saskatoon riding would be cleaved into separate rural and urban sections by the proposed boundary adjustments, said he was unaware of the robocall until after it was sent out. He said people he spoke to are opposed to the changes.
Although he admitted he hadn’t actually heard the push-poll call, he said it has “good and accurate information” and he agrees with it.
“I heard other people describe it,” he said. “One of my colleagues had it at her residence and her husband got it and he said it was fine. I’ll take his word for it.”
The only problem, Trost said, was that the call should have identified the Conservatives as the source.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
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3. Saskatchewan ridings robocall ‘followed the rules,’ prime minister says (Ottawa Citizen, February 6, 2013 8:02 PM)
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Responsibility+deceptive+Saskatchewan+robocall+rests+with+Jenni/7927408/story.html
By Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — The prime minister said Wednesday that a controversial “push poll” in Saskatchewan followed all the rules, hours after a senior Conservative MP from that province denounced the robocall as “deceptive” and said the party’s political director should be held responsible.
“The party has already explained that it has followed the rules and the law in this situation,” Stephen Harper said.
The telephone poll — which appeared designed to rally opposition to riding-boundary changes the Conservatives oppose — went out last Thursday night. On Friday afternoon, Fred DeLorey, the communications director for the party, told the Citizen the party was not doing the calls.
On Tuesday, after an American forensic audio analyst matched a voice message associated with the robocall to the owner of Conservative call provider RackNine Inc., DeLorey issued a statement for the party taking responsibility for the calls and saying there had been an “internal miscommunication.”
Wednesday, Tom Lukiwski, the government’s deputy House leader, told Saskatoon radio station CKOM the calls were “deceptive” because they didn’t identify that they came from the party. On CBC Radio, he said that the party’s political director, Jenni Byrne, should be held responsible.
But when NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair stood in the House of Commons and accused the party of lying about the call until presented with proof, Harper said it had followed the rules.
DeLorey and Byrne did not respond to calls or emails on Wednesday to explain how the calls complied with CRTC rules — which require that such calls identify the source — or to say why it took the party so long to realize that it had made the calls.
On the CBC phone-in show, Lukiwski said he was unhappy about the calls, and blamed the party.
“I don’t know which party official it would be, but I know that Jenni Byrne, who is the executive director, said, well, ultimately the buck stops with her,” he said. “She would take full responsibility.”
Byrne, who keeps a low public profile, is known as a talented, tough and formidable operative, fiercely loyal to Harper.
Saskatchewan’s one opposition MP, Liberal Ralph Goodale, this week sent a letter to the CRTC asking for an investigation based on his suspicion that the call broke telemarketing rules by failing to identify the originator.
Since the summer, Conservative MPs have repeatedly responded to questions about the robocalls affair by pointing out that the only finding of wrongdoing has been against Guelph Liberal MP Frank Valeriote’s riding association. The association paid a $4,900 fine for a CRTC violation over a late campaign call that attacked the Conservative candidate for his position on abortion, without identifying the Valeriote campaign as the sponsor of the call.
CRTC does not publicly acknowledge investigations until they are concluded. The investigation into the Guelph call took almost five months.
Wednesday, the Conservatives appeared to have lost their appetite for challenging the conclusions of the independent Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan, which recommends creating five entirely urban seats in Regina and Saskatoon — a redraw thought to disadvantage the Tories in the 2015 election.
Harper told the House of Commons that his party would not try to change the boundaries suggested by the commission when they are formalized through legislation.
“Some years ago, the Liberals tried to bring in partisan legislation to overturn boundary commission recommendations,” he said. “We would never do that.”
The revelation that RackNine appears to be linked to the “deceptive” robocall in Saskatchewan put the Conservatives on the defensive, since RackNine was the company used to make an election day call in Guelph that appears to have been designed to keep opposition supporters away from the polls.
RackNine CEO Matt Meier, who declined to comment this week, has said that he had no idea his firm was used to make the Guelph call, and has been helping the Elections Canada investigation, which has gone on for 22 months.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre said on Wednesday that the call in Saskatchewan followed the rules, since the company named in the call, Chase Research, was registered with the CRTC — apparently a reference to the requirement for telemarketers to sign on to the Do-Not-Call-List.
It was not immediately possible to confirm that.
A search through the registry of Alberta trade names and corporations failed to turn up any company called Chase Research.
The party has not said that Meier or RackNine made the Saskatchewan call.
Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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4. Conservatives deny involvement in Saskatchewan robocall defending “Saskatchewan values” (Ottawa Citizen), February 1, 2013
Poll is critical of changes to federal riding boundaries in strongly Tory province
http://www.leaderpost.com/news/canada/Conservatives+deny+involvement+Saskatchewan+robocall+defending/7906921/story.html
OTTAWA — A Conservative party spokesman denied the Conservative party is behind a mysterious robocall poll critical of changes to federal ridings that could cut into the Tories’ electoral dominance in Saskatchewan.
By Glen McGregor, Postmedia News February 1, 2013
OTTAWA — A Conservative party spokesman denied the Conservative party is behind a mysterious robocall poll critical of changes to federal ridings that could cut into the Tories’ electoral dominance in Saskatchewan.
Some Saskatchewan residents reported receiving the automated poll calls from an unknown source on Thursday night. The pre-recorded message claimed that proposed changes to the province’s 14 ridings would set urban areas against rural and amount to an attack on “Saskatchewan values.” The call then asked recipients to press the number 1 on their telephone keypads to indicate they are opposed to this attack.
One recipient of telephone poll call said the pre-recorded message claimed to come from a firm called Chase Research. There is no sign of any company in Saskatchewan with that name.
The message also provided a phone number in Regina to call back for more information about boundary changes. That number was answered on Friday by a generic recorded message saying the party was unavailable.
Glen Olauson of Saskatoon, who received the call Thursday night, said if hadn’t known about the boundaries commission already, he would have been left with a negative impression of them.
“It was pretty misleading, the language that it was an attack on Saskatchewan values,” he said.
“I thought it was pretty biased. It was a very leading question.”
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale says he believes Conservatives are behind the calls.
“They should fess up that this is their little gambit,” he said.
Goodale, the only MP in Saskatchewan who is not a Conservative, says some of the language used in the call echoed Conservative talking points on what he says is the party’s desire to gerrymander the riding redraw.
“The tone of it was so blatant, even using phrases that Conservatives had used, talking about destroying Saskatchewan values and fomenting an urban-rural split. It’s real slander job.”
He noted the Tories admitted in they had orchestrated a similar “push poll” in 2011 that erroneously suggested long-time Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler would resign his seat.
Conservative Party spokesman Fred DeLorey denied the party had any involvement.
”We are not polling,” said DeLorey in an email.
Saskatchewan won’t get any of the 30 new federal seats being added across the country for the 2015 election, but an independent boundaries commission has proposed changing the shape of the existing ridings to accommodate a fast-growing urban population.
The current boundaries are thought to favour conservative politicians by combining urban areas with rural areas. Regina and Saskatoon are each divided into four ridings that contain both city blocks and large swaths of rural areas.
That makes it harder for Liberals and New Democrats to win seats, because their stronger support from city dwellers is diluted by mixing in traditionally conservative rural voters.
The Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Saskatchewan has proposed creating two exclusively urban ridings in Regina and three in Saskatoon but the move doesn’t sit well with some Tories.
This week, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski was quoted in the Hill Times newspaper questioning the changes proposed of the boundaries commissions across the country. He said some MPs he spoke to “don’t think the maps really take into account communities of interest” and he pointed to the ridings in some provinces where the geographic size of some rural ridings would increase.
While the decision on boundary changes is left to parliament, it would be highly unusual for MPs to reject the recommendations of the non-partisan boundaries commissions.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
