The Council of Canadians was fending off deflecting notions by the Conservatives’ lawyer Arthur Hamilton in Federal Court, that they stand to gain money from defending democratic rights of Canadian citizens to have a fair election. You can look at the live-tweets of Postmedia and Ottawa Citizen reporters Maher and
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – John Cameron highlights the importance of liberal arts education – as well as the fact that only a few people (who happen to nicely coincide with the Wall government’s base) stand to benefit from a citizenry with less of a tendency toward
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Robocon: Conservative Party lawyer raises champerty
Steven Shrybman The court case dealing with possible voter suppression in 8 ridings during the May 2011 federal election is starting to fascinating. Right off the bat, the Conservative Party lawyer has tried to nullify the role of the Council of Canadians by claiming that there was a whiff of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Paul Krugman discusses two theories behind the ever-growing divergence between soaring profits and stagnant wages. But it’s particularly important to note that neither of them calls for “free money for rich people” as a rational response: Why is this happening? As best as
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Week of Hell #RoboCon
The Conservatives have had a (deservedly) rough week, and it’s about to get more rough next week. The Council of Canadians’ court challenge is Monday. The Prime Minister closed out the final news cycle hour this week by actually taking questions from the press, (which has hardly ever happened before).
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Kinsella in 2011 guessed #RoboCon
I don’t normally link to Sun, or Kinsella, but it’s worth taking a look this time, I promise.
While researching the cut brake lines that Elections Canada never found a culprit for, I stumbled across Kinsella’s 2011 correct prediction …
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: This is Elections Canada
A Conservative on Twitter months ago claimed to have made phone calls on behalf of Elections Canada. @MrAnthonyDewar That was me and 1,000s of others hired by EC to update voter lists-we manned a phone bank and DID phone voters— Marie Ellis (@writestuffpr) March 28, 2012 TJD @MrTonyDew: @writestuffpr I remember a certain tweeter saying […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: CBC vs. Postmedia vs. Elections Canada #RoboCon
There’ve been several Canadian media organizations investigating the RoboCon election fraud scandal linked to the Conservative Party. In February, Postmedia broke the story by tying the many localized reports of misleading phonecalls together by unleashing details of the mysterious Pierre Poutine alias. At that time they also reported there were emails from Elections Canada staff […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Rex and Terry and CBC
My guess is that Rex Murphy and Terry Milewski don’t agree very often, but they were both right about the [il]legitimacy of the Conservative Harper Government, nine months ago. Rex only slips in thinking Elections Canada had a “steely gaze”. Oops. Lots of oopses. Can we now see why Stephen Harper and Dean Del Mastro […]
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Robocon: A Puzzle
Huh?Consider these two statements by Allan Matthews, an Investigator in the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections:And this one:What does the second one mean?Must all participants in a single web session be aware of the other participants? And …
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Concalls: What’s At Stake? #RoboCon
Page 70 “the Court has acknowledged the utmost public importance of these proceedings, and has held that: “…. the applications raise serious issues about the integrity of the democratic process in Canada and identify practices that if proven, point to a campaign of activities that would seek to deny eligible voters their right to vote […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Last December in Kitchener #RoboCon
Since you can’t remember last December’s news from Kitchener-Conestoga (who can?), here’s a refresher. It’s not refreshing, it’s more like hair pulling agony to watch our country’s democracy die so slowly, but here it is anyway so you can share my pain. By Ashley Csanady, Record staff Tue Dec 20 2011 MP Albrecht pledges investigation […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Chrystia Freeland discusses the developing view that inequality can serve to stifle growth and development, while more equitable tax systems and social supports can encourage them:Set aside any moral or polit…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Democracy Reruns
When you’ve blogged for as long as I have, I have the luxury of being able to reference my own writing for most subjects I’m interested in. So right now you get what on TV would be described as a “clip show”. It’ll be good, and some of it is old enough, you may not […]
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Robocon: Elections Canada investigating possible voter suppression in one fifth (20%) of all ridings
The robocon net has been spread wide, with incidents in 56 ridings now being investigated:Elections Canada investigators are tracking complaints of misleading or harassing phone calls in 56 ridings during the 2011 federal election campaign, newly relea…
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Campaign Capers: It’s like pulling teeth
McGregor and Maher published another installment in their series covering the robocalls controversy a couple of days ago. They led with the news that Allan Mathews, the former RCMP investigator who has been working as an investigator for Elections Canada, has been asked to submit an affidavit in the case of the applicants who are seeking to overturn the election results in six ridings. If he complies, he may end up on the stand for cross-examination. But this, several paragraphs into the story, is just as interesting if not more so. Earlier this month, a few days after the Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia News reported on email records that showed Elections Canada officials suspected the Conservatives of "mischief" with misleading telephone calls during the last election, Shrybman wrote to the agency to complain that it had failed to provide the emails when he requested records of complaints in August. This week, Elections Canada agreed to introduce records containing the emails… The Conservatives have maintained all along that this challenge is being brought by sore losers who didn’t like the election results. That line of attack is blunted by the fact that the emails in question reflect complaints that Elections Canada…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Waiting til December #RoboCon
Since Canadians are massively under-informed about the status of the legitimacy of their federal government, it seems unlikely to me that millions of them would take to the streets prior to December 10th to demand an earlier hearing in the federal court. So until then, we’ll wait for some justice to get a hearing. I’m […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: By-election Monday; Plan to Fix Democracy
Well, the polls are closed in Victoria, Calgary, and Durham, ON so it’s time for some results. Since the voters of Durham were foolish enough to stick with Oda after her first waves of scandal until she burned out from too much $16 orange juice, they obviously stuck with the party of election fraud, and […]
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Campaign Capers: Democracy Watch update
Democracy Watch has a published a new media release. Here’s the first three paragraphs: OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch called on the federal Conservatives to introduce the bill to ban false election robocalls and strengthen election law enforcement that they promised to introduce by the end of September under a resolution passed unanimously last March by federal politicians. Democracy Watch’s national letter-writing and petition drive has resulted in more than 56,000 messages being sent to politicians across Canada calling on them to pass effective laws to stop election fraud robocalls, and to strengthen enforcement of election laws. To their credit, the federal Liberals introduced private member Bill C-424 last May to increase fines for false robocalls and other fraudulent attempts to sway voters from $2,000-$5,000 up to $20,000 to $50,000. The Conservatives rejected Bill C-424 on Wednesday (Nov. 21). 56,000 messages actually doesn’t seem like all that much. Surely there are more Canadians than that who want to see the health of our democracy protected. The Conservatives have made it pretty obvious that they’ll stall on this as long as possible; they don’t seem likely to act without a lot more pressure. If you agree, perhaps you’d like to send…
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Up In Smoke #RoboCon
Today I’ve had a bit of a back and forth discussion with a National Post editor and columnist who figures it’s not strange to base a prediction on the Conservatives’ electoral chances in 2015 on an economic forecast given recently by Jim Flaherty. I indignantly pointed out that the Conservative Party of Canada should be […]
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