Former Con found guilty in Robocalls trial
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Michael Sona, fall guy robocall perp sentenced to nine months in jail for his role in the 2011 election robocall scandal, has served 12 days of that sentence and would like to go home now while he waits for the appeal of both his conviction and sentence.
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OK, said Judge Harry Laforme today, releasing Sona til May 29, 2015.
Sona free on bail pending appeal of robocalls conviction | Ottawa Citizen
As Sona's trial progressed from his being an unlikely criminal mastermind whose friend and fellow Guelph campaign co-worker received immunity to give evidence against him that turned out to be so self-serving that even the prosecution said it should "be approached with caution", to the testimony of the Hill staffers delivered to Elections Canada's investigation by the Con Party lawyer who sat in on and coached their initial EC interviews even as EC lacked the power to compel any witnesses themselves, and on to his lawyer's decision not to put Sona on the stand because he thought they'd won their case, Michael Sona mostly serves now as the symbolic closed door to any further investigation or interest by Elections Canada into the 1,394 legitimate complaints about misleading phone across 234 ridings in the 2011 election.
Ironically, perhaps the most damning account of this farce to date comes from the guy who rolled over on Sona - the same guy who testified he logged out of his own RackNine account on election day only to log back in again a few minutes later onto the Pierre Jones/Poutine account on the instructions of Guelph election campaign chair Ken Morgan who decamped to Kuwait after refusing to be interviewed by Elections Canada.
https://twitter.com/robocallstrial/status/474259222884937728
Sona still insists he is innocent of the charges brought against him and doesn't know who the real perp(s) were in Guelph.
Elizabeth May has again called for a public inquiry.
Peter Smoczynski is still making his election fraud documentary, with renewed fundraisers coming in the spring.
video
Ten minute promotional video on an investigative documentary in production which previews preliminary interviews. on Vimeo
.
OK, said Judge Harry Laforme today, releasing Sona til May 29, 2015.
Sona free on bail pending appeal of robocalls conviction | Ottawa Citizen
As Sona's trial progressed from his being an unlikely criminal mastermind whose friend and fellow Guelph campaign co-worker received immunity to give evidence against him that turned out to be so self-serving that even the prosecution said it should "be approached with caution", to the testimony of the Hill staffers delivered to Elections Canada's investigation by the Con Party lawyer who sat in on and coached their initial EC interviews even as EC lacked the power to compel any witnesses themselves, and on to his lawyer's decision not to put Sona on the stand because he thought they'd won their case, Michael Sona mostly serves now as the symbolic closed door to any further investigation or interest by Elections Canada into the 1,394 legitimate complaints about misleading phone across 234 ridings in the 2011 election.
Ironically, perhaps the most damning account of this farce to date comes from the guy who rolled over on Sona - the same guy who testified he logged out of his own RackNine account on election day only to log back in again a few minutes later onto the Pierre Jones/Poutine account on the instructions of Guelph election campaign chair Ken Morgan who decamped to Kuwait after refusing to be interviewed by Elections Canada.
https://twitter.com/robocallstrial/status/474259222884937728
Sona still insists he is innocent of the charges brought against him and doesn't know who the real perp(s) were in Guelph.
Elizabeth May has again called for a public inquiry.
Peter Smoczynski is still making his election fraud documentary, with renewed fundraisers coming in the spring.
video
Ten minute promotional video on an investigative documentary in production which previews preliminary interviews. on Vimeo
So far only the Harper CONS have been found guilty..........
When Elections Canada mails out Voter Information Cards this fall, a new sentence in bold letters will appear at the bottom: Please note that this card is not a piece of ID.
This means that on election day, tens of thousands of people will likely turn up at their polling station, voter cards in hand, only to learn that they can’t vote.
In the last election, 400,000 Canadians used these cards to identify themselves. Another 120,171 had someone, usually a neighbour or relative, vouch for their identity.
This time there will be none of that, thanks to the Fair Elections Act passed by the Conservative government last year.
It's not that this problem was unforeseen. Harry Nuefeld, an expert on Canadian elections, warned the Conservatives that there would be problems:
“It can be anticipated that many tens of thousands of otherwise fully qualified voters will simply be unable to meet the new attestation-of-residence requirements,” he writes. "During my 33 years of election administration … my observation is that voting fraud which involves persons deciding to impersonate someone else, or find some other creative way to vote more than once, is extremely rare in this country.”
But Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for ramming the "Fair" Elections Act through Parliament, would have none of it. There was potential fraud everywhere, he claimed. What he didn't say was that he and his party know that the majority of Canadians don't buy what he and they are selling.
The only way to stay in power is to make sure that the majority of Canadians don't get to the polls.......
Stephen Maher: It could get ugly at polling stations this fall thanks to Fair Elections Act | National Post
When Elections Canada mails out Voter Information Cards this fall, a new sentence in bold letters will appear at the bottom: Please note that this card is not a piece of ID.
This means that on election day, tens of thousands of people will likely turn up at their polling station, voter cards in hand, only to learn that they can’t vote.
In the last election, 400,000 Canadians used these cards to identify themselves. Another 120,171 had someone, usually a neighbour or relative, vouch for their identity.
This time there will be none of that, thanks to the Fair Elections Act passed by the Conservative government last year.
It's not that this problem was unforeseen. Harry Nuefeld, an expert on Canadian elections, warned the Conservatives that there would be problems:
“It can be anticipated that many tens of thousands of otherwise fully qualified voters will simply be unable to meet the new attestation-of-residence requirements,” he writes. "During my 33 years of election administration … my observation is that voting fraud which involves persons deciding to impersonate someone else, or find some other creative way to vote more than once, is extremely rare in this country.”
But Pierre Poilievre, the minister responsible for ramming the "Fair" Elections Act through Parliament, would have none of it. There was potential fraud everywhere, he claimed. What he didn't say was that he and his party know that the majority of Canadians don't buy what he and they are selling.
The only way to stay in power is to make sure that the majority of Canadians don't get to the polls.......
Stephen Maher: It could get ugly at polling stations this fall thanks to Fair Elections Act | National Post
Democracy Watch announced it will launch a private prosecution against the Conservative Party for its role in the 2011 "robocalls" scandal, which misled some Canadians to go to the wrong polling stations in key ridings.
The group decided to take action after government lawyers refused to press charges.
At the time of writing, Democracy Watch is focusing legal efforts on one individual at Conservative Party Headquarters who booked calls that gave voters across the country incorrect polling station locations— even after Elections Canada warned all political parties not to engage in such activities during the 2011 campaign.
“The Commissioner of Canada Elections and Director of Public Prosecutions have clear evidence that the Conservatives made election robocalls that misled voters, which is a clear violation of the federal elections law, but they won’t prosecute. So Democracy Watch will, to ensure the violators are held accountable for their wrongdoing,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch and visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, in a media release dated July 23.
So far, the robocalls scandal has resulted only in the conviction of Michael Sona, who was sentenced to nine months in jail in a case that Conacher said was based on relatively weak evidence.
His offence was putting out a robocall aimed at preventing 6,000 voters in the Guelph region from casting their ballots, resulting in 150-200 people being successfully tricked, according to a CBC article dated Nov. 19 2014.
Sona aside, Conacher said that the elections commissioner found that 27 per cent of voters in one sample received misleading voting information, a snapshot from a Canada-wide operation.
As a result, the Conservatives, Sona excepted, were let off the hook despite extensive evidence that they deceived voters across the country.
According to Conacher, the commissioner refused to disclose rulings on past elections-related complaints and an audit of the 2011 campaign revealed systemic enforcement problems.
In response to the commissioner’s secrecy, Democracy Watch filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner about the refusal to disclose his rulings on past election complaints that totaled roughly 3,000 since 1997. Conacher said that the commissioner refused because some of the rulings might make him look bad.
“The failure to disclose these rulings makes him look even worse because he’s covering up biased or ineffective enforcement in the past,” said Conacher.
In his view, a successful prosecution was all the more urgent in the run-up to the Oct. 19 election, as the chances of another robocall scandal remained high.
Democracy Watch throws the book at Conservatives over robocalls | National Observer
The group decided to take action after government lawyers refused to press charges.
At the time of writing, Democracy Watch is focusing legal efforts on one individual at Conservative Party Headquarters who booked calls that gave voters across the country incorrect polling station locations— even after Elections Canada warned all political parties not to engage in such activities during the 2011 campaign.
“The Commissioner of Canada Elections and Director of Public Prosecutions have clear evidence that the Conservatives made election robocalls that misled voters, which is a clear violation of the federal elections law, but they won’t prosecute. So Democracy Watch will, to ensure the violators are held accountable for their wrongdoing,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch and visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, in a media release dated July 23.
So far, the robocalls scandal has resulted only in the conviction of Michael Sona, who was sentenced to nine months in jail in a case that Conacher said was based on relatively weak evidence.
His offence was putting out a robocall aimed at preventing 6,000 voters in the Guelph region from casting their ballots, resulting in 150-200 people being successfully tricked, according to a CBC article dated Nov. 19 2014.
Sona aside, Conacher said that the elections commissioner found that 27 per cent of voters in one sample received misleading voting information, a snapshot from a Canada-wide operation.
As a result, the Conservatives, Sona excepted, were let off the hook despite extensive evidence that they deceived voters across the country.
According to Conacher, the commissioner refused to disclose rulings on past elections-related complaints and an audit of the 2011 campaign revealed systemic enforcement problems.
In response to the commissioner’s secrecy, Democracy Watch filed a complaint with the federal Information Commissioner about the refusal to disclose his rulings on past election complaints that totaled roughly 3,000 since 1997. Conacher said that the commissioner refused because some of the rulings might make him look bad.
“The failure to disclose these rulings makes him look even worse because he’s covering up biased or ineffective enforcement in the past,” said Conacher.
In his view, a successful prosecution was all the more urgent in the run-up to the Oct. 19 election, as the chances of another robocall scandal remained high.
Democracy Watch throws the book at Conservatives over robocalls | National Observer
Every time something happens its not a conspiracy in this case I wouldn't doubt it
but there is no proven link that I can see.
I think instead of going through this over and over again the law should be changed.
Anyone caught doing Robo Calls is fined one million dollars and given five years in
jail no parole think it would happen again?
but there is no proven link that I can see.
I think instead of going through this over and over again the law should be changed.
Anyone caught doing Robo Calls is fined one million dollars and given five years in
jail no parole think it would happen again?
