Want to chew up their war chest?

Make them pay.

Harebell dissects the PIPED Act.

All you have to do is find the name of the Conservative Party of Canada data compliance officer.

The question is, can you do it?

Of course you can. You're Canadian!

McKnight (updated)

Well, there's a name we haven't heard yet. The team of Maher and MacGregor have hit a new one.

A key employee of the company that was used to send out the misdirecting robocalls in Guelph on election day appears not to exist under the name he uses online.

RackNine, the Edmonton company that suspect "Pierre Poutine" used to send voters to the wrong polling locations, is operated by Edmonton businessman Matt Meier, with the help of Rick McKnight, who is identified variously as head of marketing and web developer.

But Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen are unable to find anyone who knows McKnight, even though he has a healthy online identity, including 551 Facebook friends, many of them prominent.

Meier and his lawyer declined Monday to clear up the case of the mysterious McKnight.
Until recently, McKnight was listed as web developer on the LinkedIn business website, the only other North American employee with a listing under RackNine. His entry says that he studied computer science at Stanford University, and that he was born on Jan. 1, although it doesn't list the year.

Of course it gets better. (My emphasis)

Meier, who is said to be helping Elections Canada with their investigation and has repeatedly said he had no knowledge of the "Poutine" robocalls, has declined to comment on McKnight's identity.

In an interview, when asked how a reporter could get in touch with McKnight, he said "you don't," and hung up.

Goodness me! That can get you a senate appointment.

Now, if you haven't been reading The Gazeteer, you are now.

Here's another one for you. (I'm going to get into some shit for this).

Once, in a place not so far away, I had more than one identity. Completely approved by the government that approved it. I was not 007. I was just some yob that needed to be hidden from public view. That was before the internet.

And it worked.

So much for Matt Meier's squeaky clean Oh-Double-Nothin' in the morning discovery of "Pierre".

Update: Go to comments and read what Beijing York has unearthed. 

Stevie blight . . .

TURTLE ISLAND NATIVE NETWORK FORUM reports that Stevie's gang are doing their best, in a report, "Understated pollution from Alberta's oil sands".

About those US Republicans who campaign for Canadians

Something about this post by Alison has been bugging me. Front Porch Technologies president Matthew D. Parker was photographed working in the campaign office of Julian Fantino (Vaughan). And then, by his own hand on 20 April, 2011, in a Twitter thing:

Knocking on doors for MP Rick Dykstra. People don't like liberals here!

That would be Harper party member Rick Dykstra (St. Catharines).

So we have West Virginia born, Ohio resident, US citizen, Matt Parker phoning and knocking and just "taking Toronto by storm".

OK, let's continue this with a particular definition.

induce
in-duce [in-doos -dyoos]
1. to lead or move by persuasion or influence, as to some action or state of mind: to induce a person to buy a raffle ticket.

... like making direct contact with Canadian electors and suggesting they vote for your candidate ... or phoning them directly to gather support ... or handing them candidate and party literature. 

Now let's look at a little chunk of the Canada Elections Act. 

Non-interference by Foreigners

Prohibition – inducements by non-residents

331. No person who does not reside in Canada shall, during an election period, in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate unless the person is

• (a) a Canadian citizen; or



• (b) a permanent resident within the meaning of subsection 2(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

In any way, it says. In other words, sit on your hands, stay off peoples porches and keep your mouth shut. 


Perhaps Fantino and Dykstra can explain.

 

And the attempt to repair the break

As RossK points out, there is a serious attempt on the part of Conservative party operatives (and their selected tame journalists) to contain the election fraud issue to Guelph. In short, the theory that it was a "rogue" caller and nothing else happened. From comments in this post Alison reminds us of this from CBC reporter Terry Milewski:

"We now have, thanks to John [Iveson], the list of numbers called by Pierre Poutine. Now where did those come from? Well, the Conservative Party, according to John's story, is likely to use this to show that it was more limited than many people thought - it was kind of Guelph plus extra.That raises the question where did they get this list of numbers? Where did the Conservatives get it? Why did the Conservatives have it?"

On CBC's The House, Milewski was having none of Iveson's attempt to limit. As he points out there were robocalls that went well beyond the "Guelph +" fallout area. He also reiterated the point that there were plenty of live calls which used similar tactics.

I'll repeat the big question, which Terry Milewski above has put on the national table, and which The Sixth Estate asks:

These phone records, if they’re legit, are evidence of election fraud. The proper place for these records is in the hands of Elections Canada investigators. The fact that the Conservatives have them can only mean one of three things:

The Conservatives got the records directly from Racknine. I’m not sure how that squares with Racknine’s previous claims that they are a non-partisan organization and that the call order in question didn’t come from the Conservative Party (which would mean, presumably, that they shouldn’t be sharing the records with an unconnected third party).

The Conservatives got the records from Elections Canada. This would suggest either that the Conservatives have a mole on the investigation team, or that Elections Canada is under political control by the very party that it’s currently supposed to be investigating.

The Conservatives got the records internally. This would suggest they already know who the perpetrator is — and may have known all along.

On The House, Iveson, after almost slipping, stops short of stating that Matt Meier of Racknine provided the list of the numbers called to the Conservative Party insiders.

So, Iveson's theory, (and you can bet this will be the regurgitated Conservative line), is that it's just Guelph with a little bit of fallout drift, it's just one "rogue" person and the central campaign had nothing to do with it.

Terry Milewski's reporting provides evidence that it is much, much wider than that.

As RossK points out in the bottom of his post:

Have you noted the new meme....That if it wasn't a call wherein the caller, Robo or otherwise, identified him or herself as being from Elections Canada, it was not illegal....Again, it would appear that folks are trying to limit and circumscribe the hangout as much as possible to he or she who soon will be, we imagine, scapegoated...

There seems to be further rumbling that any calls that went out from ridings were the work of riding workers and there was no central effort.

So why then, do you need this?

The Shattering

You could make book that there are a lot of phones busy and nobody is sending anybody to a non-existent voting place. But that's what's being discussed.

Ian Brodie, Harpers chief of staff from 2006 to 2008, had this to add to the voter suppression file:

Something seems to have gone on, on a scale I’ve never seen before

Hard to disagree with that. Brodie, a Harper insider, is now contradicting Harper and Del Mastro who have both been denying anything and everything.

Over at The Sixth Estate the big question. The Conservatives apparently have access to campaign phone records and, since they are the subject of an investigation, it is only proper that we know how it is anybody under investigation came to be in possession of them.

Concern is spreading . . .

A few days in May

There was a bright shining light on the morning of Tuesday, 3 May, 2011. Unfortunately it was shrouded by the gloom felt by most people who had headed to the polls the day before.

A majority of Canadians who voted had cast their ballots for someone other than the candidate running under the Harper banner yet, owing to an electoral process which recognizes plurality, Harper had achieved his dream of personal power with a parliamentary majority.

That upset created a whirlwind of media activity, speculation and (for some) loud rejoicing. There were three BIG stories that dominated the morning of May 3rd: The Harper majority; the crushing defeat of the Liberal party; and, the rise of the NDP as the new Official Opposition. You could shuffle the order of those stories any way you liked, but that was pretty much it.

Which meant the bright shining light, which had been ignited the day before, was now stuffed behind a closed closet door. Almost nobody noticed.

As Alison points out, however, it was there the whole time, staring us in the face. In those early days of May evidence of election wrongdoing was readily apparent and, by the morning of Tuesday, 3 May, 2011, there was every indication that it was deliberate, calculated and expansive.

It was washed over almost immediately. In ridings with close races 2nd place finishers who complained about voter-suppression tactics were dismissed as sore losers. Voters who complained were drowned-out by the celebratory noises of the likes of Rex Murphy and a narcissistic media punditry performing an electoral postmortem which focused on little more than their own navels.

Canadians, who had come to believe that elections in this country were scrupulously clean and well managed, (despite attack ads and irritating invasions of the telephone system by all parties), were, for the most part, glad just to have the damn thing done and over with. Execrable acts of election fraud would only prolong the agony of the previous 36 days (which Harper had managed to turn into years with the endless campaign)

The perpetrators of the strategy to suppress opposition votes were counting on exactly that.

I don't know of any organization the size of a national political party which does not perform a post-event analysis. It is how they stay efficient. In the case of a federal election all political parties would have carried out a detailed dissection of the operations of their campaigns to determine what worked and what didn't. That would include this unit of the Harper campaign.

It is also well-known that large organizations, whether they be corporations, churches, government departments or national political parties, watch media items related to their activities like a hawk. Message management, (something the Harperites treat as a religious item), requires never allowing a potentially damaging item to drift around without at least some prepared tactical response.

And that means that the same items which Alison has shown to have been in public view in those early days of May 2011 were a part of the scrutiny that most assuredly was carried out by the Harper campaign immediately after the election. They knew then that there was a bright shining light and they would have prepared for any exposure. From May 2011 to February 2012 they were trying to cover up.

Any competent party leader would also have been aware. In May, 2011.

That would mean that Harper knew, chose not to know, or is just plain stupid.

Vickie would love this . . .

LEFT LANE NEWS is a car site with a sad, rather disturbing report. According to Ronan Glon, "UK wants to use cameras to prevent uninsured drivers from buying gas". You see, over the last decade, the UK has become the CCTV (closed-circuit TV) mecca of the world — cameras are everywhere, it seems, including gas stations, and they are linked up to computers for image analysis. You can't run and you can't hide, unless of course, you buy a mask.

It is estimated that one out of every 25 drivers in the United Kingdom does not have insurance. That puts the total number of uninsured drivers at about 1.4 million, one of the worst statistics of its kind in Europe.

Law enforcement agencies have been largely unsuccessful in cracking down on these drivers, but the government has come up with a new plan that might put an end to the problem once and for all.

Most gas station (as well as many parking lots) in the UK are equipped with an advanced automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system. It works in conjunction with the country’s notorious CCTV cameras to record the license plate number of every car that fuels up, which in turn makes it easier to track down buyers who leave the pump without paying.

Lawmakers want to use the ANPR system to double check whether or not cars arriving at gas stations are insured and taxed. If one of those is missing, the system would automatically stop the pump from dispensing fuel, which could leave the driver stranded.

It's great in theory, but I wonder, does the Super-Surveillance State contain the seed of its own rebellion? The human spirit does not like CCTV.

Lily Allen could curl a conservative's hair

... without a curling iron. She does this one for Harper and crew.



Who knew?

Getting advice . . .

Intent, not outcome, is the basis for criminality

Dean del Mastro is getting desperate.

Del Mastro, who has been leading his party's defence in the controversy over live and automated election phone calls, said nobody has come forward to say they didn't vote because they first went to the wrong polling station.

"So where are these people? Where are these people? Where are these people saying that I got the call, I went to the wrong station, and then I didn't vote?" Del Mastro said on CBC's Power & Politics.

"There haven’t been any. No one has stepped forward and said that."

"Some of these things, as I've already indicated, could have well been mistakes. I don't understand why folks jump to these things and run to a conclusion that they have no evidence of."

Mistakes?! Parties were told not to direct voters to polling stations. He's claiming "mistake" as a defence?

You walk into a bank with a toy gun and demand the all the available money (in small bills) but encounter an operation where the customer service associate has no money.

You flee.

The cop outside captures you.

In court your attorney stresses to the judge that you didn't actually get any money. It's not really a robbery and the gun wasn't really a gun, but a toy. It's all one big mistake.

The Criminal Code section 85 (2) says your toy gun is still a gun. Section 343 says you attempted a robbery. Enjoy prison because you get a five year minimum sentence.

We have evidence dripping off the walls, and Del Mastro is very close there to shifting his defence to the right - we did stuff but it didn't prevent anyone from voting.

The illegal act was doing stuff. 

Toto. I don't think we're in Guelph anymore.

A short summary (with links).

Where are we? Well, right across the country. Only now, instead of just watching the TV news and wondering about the veracity of the reports, you can go look for yourself at archived comments that were posted one and two days before the last federal election.

Starting with the statement from the Chief Electoral Officer, then moving on to the digging done by one of The Gazetteers readers we move out of Guelph completely.

From the online comments of two people posted on 30 April 2011 and 1 May 2011 we have Halifax, Nova Scotia originated calls from the Conservative Party of Canada that went out to Fredricton, New Brunswick and to Mission, British Columbia.

Not robocalls - live calls. In both cases the caller attempted to mislead voters by announcing a change in voting location.

Does the thought, "centrally coordinated national voter-suppression strategy" start to drift through your brain?

More pretty dots. More evidence

Go over to The Gazetteer and watch the video of the CBC report. Then go down and read the first comment from the very diligent North Van Grumps.

On the video a Lori Bruce is interviewed and stated that she had a call from the Conservative Party telling her that her voting place had moved. She googled the number, 902-800-1015, as can be seen during the interview.

Now go here where the number 902-800-1015, the one on Lori Bruce's screen, is the subject of some complaining. Scroll down to a comment left on 30 Apr 2011 by one LoriB.

Here is what she said then:

I just got a call from this number. They told me the location where I vote on Monday has changed.  I called Elections Canada and was told the location has not changed and I was not the first call they had today asking the same thing.

Lori Bruce is in Fredricton New Brunswick.

Now go to the comment just below by Astrid back on 1 May 2011.

Received the 6th or 7th call in two weeks from the Conservative Party. This last one, about an hour ago, she told me locations to vote had changed, Told her no, I know where it is, this is after I declared "oh, no, not again". Are these people just so desperate?
Worst call came form Randy Kamp's (MLA) office in Mission, the man actually demanded that I tell him who I am voting for. Made it perfectly clear that that was NONE of his business.
Am going to contact Elections Canada and register a complaint too.

Astrid appears to be in the riding of Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission, British Columbia where Randy Kamp, Conservative, is the MP.

Comments left on a site a few days before the last election, from ridings on either side of the country - not Guelph.

Must add:  Area code 902 covers Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Fredricton is in area code 506. Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission is in area code 604 and 778. The prefix 800 in area code 902 is in Halifax.
 

Watch the Auditor General on April 3rd

Watch very closely. The AG zeroed in on the F-35 Lightning II project and draft of the Spring report to Parliament was delivered to departments and ministries.

Today, sackcloth and ashes were being issued at 101 Colonel By Drive and some people were falling on their swords.

Auditor General Michael Ferguson is preparing to blast the Department of National Defence for its handling of the F-35 stealth fighter program in a report to be released next month, the National Post is reporting.

The first draft of the report has been delivered to the department and is said to accuse the military of misleading Parliament, according to sources who have spoken to the newspaper.

Which means the prime minister, the defence minister and the associate defence minister misled parliament. 

A source tells me there is a lot of dust flying around in the F-35 project office. That will be from blowing off what would have been competing bids --- if there had been a competition.

Marc Mayrand: With Much Pleasure - Now please send invitation (Updated)

The Chief Electoral Officer has something to say, and he'd like to say it to a parliamentary committee.

Immediately following the 2011 general election, the Commissioner of Canada Elections deployed resources to investigate complaints of fraudulent or improper calls. Since then, over 700 Canadians from across the country have informed us of specific circumstances where they believe similar wrongdoing took place.

Watch that figure closely. 700 reported. That will be the figure the Harperites fling around. They will need to be reminded that they told us this.

Update: Mr. Mayrand might want to discuss some of this.

Stephen Woodworth provides the best case for abortion - ever!

Himself!

This is what happens when an election gets stolen by a bunch of superstitious authoritarian pukes.

H/T Dented Blue Mercedes

Royal Commission?

Bad idea. Now, take that down and give your heads a shake.

An exceptionally informative piece on the type and timing of any public inquiry into voter suppression and other electoral irregularities, (Yes. I'm looking at you, with the blue frigging cravat), is right here.

The investigation must be allowed to continue  - unimpeded.

I personally believe the Harper election campaign was dirtier than an overnight disposable diaper, but the investigators need to be able to develop findings.

The trick is to keep an eye on Harper. He is going to start maneouvring to protect his ass. The thing is to keep it fully exposed by pulling his pants down at every opportunity.

We've all been playing defence with Harper and his mob. As Noni Mausa says, it's time we out-maneouvred them. As the start of this episode has demonstrated, when Harper is caught off-guard, he doesn't come off as much of a leader. So ... be ready for his next move and be prepared to cut him off at the knees. (Figuratively of course. It would be wrong to leave a mess for whomever displaces him).

Did you hear the one about the guy who tried to steal a ballot box?

Oh ... you've already heard that one?

Right.

That's what the Harper central campaign was counting on. He's already made news, he already looks irrationally obsessed, he can deny all he wants and the "low information" crowd will swallow it anyway. Michael Sona is a "perfect" target. Feed him to the media.

Write him off.

I wouldn't defend this kid for any reason ... except for one thing.

He didn't do it.

And if the president of a company who is employed by the Conservatives during an election campaign suddenly has a "bell-ringer" moment at Oh-Dark-Thirty and makes a discovery that should send investigators scurrying down the path of connectivity, well ... I don't believe that either. It's too neat, too convenient and the timing is just too perfect. I don't know any professional investigators who would buy it.

Call me cynical.

You're reading today? Of Gods & Other Monsters.

What was I thinking? Of course there are several minds working the same way. The Sixth Estate illuminates the issue nicely. Inquiry? Only if there is no chance of the Harperites getting caught. Therefore, no inquiry.

A small, but positive step . . .

Activists in Argentina have been pushing
for a debate about the legalisation of abortion

ACCORDING TO THE BBC, the Supreme Court in Argentina has ruled that women who have an abortion after being raped will no longer be prosecuted.

Under Argentine law, abortion is only allowed in cases where the mother's life or health are at risk, or if the woman is deemed "of feeble mind".
The Supreme Court confirmed a lower court's decision to allow a 15-year-old rape victim to terminate her pregnancy.
An estimated 500,000 illegal abortions are carried out in Argentina each year.

500,000 abortions — how appallingly tragic. And this is how Stevie's hard-core religious nut-bar supporters think women in Canada should live? These twisted zealots are morally offensive to the extreme.