Dear editor,
Your editorial (All’s fair in love and politics) on Friday, March 30 found “reports of fraudulent robocalls in North Island sad and yet unsurprising.”
Yes, the reports are sad and unsurprising, but it is important to emphasize that at this time we are dealing only with “reports” of fraudulent robocalls. Such reports are allegations of fraudulent voter misdirection not factual evidence that such calls were actually made in North Island.
I note the national media also reports with minimum qualification that more than 33,000 fraudulent robocalls misdirected voters to their polling place across Canada. There is very little attempt to make it clear that such reports are unsubstantiated and unproven.
We know the robocall scandal started in Guelph, Ont. and Elections Canada is investigating that debacle. Reports to date suggest a rogue operative initiated fraudulent calls in that constituency. Elections Canada report there is as yet no hard evidence of such fraudulent robocalls elsewhere.
The Opposition Parties quite rightly raised the matter in Parliament, but they also asked their supporters across Canada to report robocall abuse elsewhere and the flood of complaints was predictable. Millions of loyal supporters were very unhappy with the results of the federal election and it is not a stretch to think that some may have embellished their facts including reports of abuse emanating from the North Island. Partisan supporters are quick to believe the worst regarding their adversary.
Each of these complaints must be investigated by Elections Canada. Such complaints can be shown to be honest reports of abuse or simply a fraudulent complaint. Elections Canada needs only to check each complainant’s telephone records. Elections Canada investigators will know the telephone number sources of the robocalls in question and can confirm whether a person reporting abuse actually received a call from a suspect telephone number. If the person actually received a telephone call from such a number their complaint will be considered credible. If not, there should be consequences for such mischief.
Until these facts can be established let’s allow Elections Canada to do its job and refrain from jumping to conclusions regarding the veracity of the wide-spread reports of robocall abuse across Canada including the North Island.
W. Hunter
Courtenay
