Monday, December 10, 2012

Robo/Real Calls Go To Court...

AllTheCitizensThatFit
WithoutAnyHelpFromE-CanadaWhatsoeverVille


Postmedia's Glimmer Twins, Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor, had a good primmer up on Friday.

Here's a chunk (but go read the whole thing to get the big picture and a lot of the details as well):

...In Federal Court in Ottawa on Monday (Dec 10th), a lawyer representing (Kenneth) Ferance — along with voters in five other ridings who say they also received deceptive calls — will ask a judge to overturn the election results in their ridings.

The lawyer leading the challenge, Steven Shrybman, will argue that the elections ought to be set aside because of an orchestrated voter-suppression scheme, a deliberate attempt to stop people from voting, mostly by calling them and giving them misleading information about the location of their polling stations.

The litigation is backed by the left-of-centre advocacy group, the Council of Canadians, and targets six ridings all won by close margins by Conservatives, including Jay Aspin, who beat Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota by 18 votes in the Ferance’s riding, Nipissing-Timiskaming.

In the courtroom, Shrybman will face Arthur Hamilton, the lawyer for the Conservative MPs. He will argue that the applicants can’t prove that they were disenfranchised because they all voted, and they haven’t managed to prove that the result was affected by fraud.

The hearings will mark the first time a court has looked into allegations of voter suppression since Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen first reported on Elections Canada’s “robocall” investigation in February.

The reports drew public attention to an apparent pattern of voter suppression calls and prompted a nationwide investigation into calls like the one Ferance received. As the Federal Court case is argued, Elections Canada continues to investigate robocalls made in the riding of Guelph and live and recorded calls reported by voters across the country.

The applicants in the Federal Court cases must meet a difficult legal burden, proving that any “irregularity, fraud, corrupt practice or illegal practice” was enough to change the outcome of the votes...



Mr. McGregor is live tweeting the thing, and taking on all comers (including young Mr. Sona), here.


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Canada is rotten to the core with corruption.

Who controls the judicial system? Forget it. We had other judges overruling the first judge, in the Etobicoke election, being declared null and void. Harper did appoint new Conservative judges, don't forget that.

We live in a dictatorship, in case people don't know. All dictators "control". Harper sold us out to Communist China. Our judicial system, is like China's. Don't you remember? China can sue anyone who blocks their way, into their takeover of Canada.

There are no morals, ethics, democracy, decency, nor honesty, left in this country. Canadians don't even own this country.

Besides which, the opposition are, useless, gutless wonders. Elizabeth May was the only politician, with the guts, to call Harper on his treachery and evil.

There are two sets of laws in Canada. One for politicians and, the other for the every day Canadian citizens.

Does not everyone remember? The trial of Campbell's theft and corrupt of the BC Railroad? That was a farce so obvious, it was laughable. Brain dead witnesses and all. A kangaroo court.