A phone survey some recipients describe as “strange” has recently surfaced in the Cariboo.
The caller begins by asking if people want to do a survey about Fish Lake, the lake at the heart of the New Prosperity Mine Project in the Chilcotin.
Krista Liebe of Williams Lake received the call and said the questions were odd.
“They asked how I valued the Chamber of Commerce,” Liebe told the Tribune Friday. “They asked me to rate Williams Lake city council, the mayor, Taseko Mines Ltd. as an employer, the Council of Canadians, environmentalists, environmental groups and university professors.”
One of the most disturbing aspects was being asked to rate a former Tsilhqot’in chief on a scale of one to ten.
“I was aghast because that’s really personal so I asked where he was calling from. He told me from Ontario and said he didn’t know the former chief or anything, he was just doing the survey.”
Other than surveys that identify a certain politician or political candidate, Liebe has never received a survey asking her what she thought about a certain person.
The caller also asked what she thought of First Nations in the Chilcotin receiving money from the government to help fight a rights and title case.
“Because it was so weird, I felt something wasn’t right and I feel other people need to know about it,” Liebe said.
Liebe’s phone rang at home a few different times before she actually answered the survey.
On the first few calls there was dead air on the other end, but finally on the fourth call she managed to wait long enough to catch someone on the other end of the line.
Once she got off the phone she started thinking about the survey and checked the number on her phone, which was 250-980-3976.
She called it and an answering machine said she’d called Campaign Research in Ottawa.
Since receiving the call and talking about it, Liebe’s heard of half a dozen others in the community receiving the same survey call.
“I do think it’s very important this gets out there,” Liebe said.
The Tribune called Campaign Research Friday afternoon and left a message.
