Written by on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 in Latest News.
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Written by on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 in Latest News.
The Elections Canada investigation prompted by misleading calls to voters during the final days of last May’s election is spreading, CBC News has learned.
The growing probe will involve interviews with some employees of a call centre based in Thunder Bay, Ont., operated by Responsive Marketing Group. The company was hired by the Conservatives to reach out to voters.
It was not immediately clear whether the interviews in Thunder Bay are directly connected with the continuing investigation by Elections Canada in Guelph.
A former employee of the RMG call centre in Thunder Bay told CBC earlier this week that some staff were poorly trained and that could be one reason why voters may have been given fake information about polling station locations.
Another RMG worker, who questioned to remain anonymous, described to CBC Radio’s As it Happens Monday her discomfort with the way she felt her fellow employees were questioned to influence voters on behalf of the Conservative Party. They weren’t allowed to say they worked for a call centre, she said.
The employee said she and other workers took their concerns to the RCMP, but “they said they didn’t want to listen, it wasn’t their area, and it was now all over and done with.”
Earlier Wednesday, the man who ran the the Conservative Party’s 2006 and 2008 election campaigns said misleading robocalls in Guelph are an isolated case.
Doug Finley, who advised the Conservatives on the 2011 election and sits as a Conservative senator, says the case of the weird calls has been blown out of proportion.
Opposition MPs have a list of 45 ridings they say were targeted by automated robocalls or live calls wrongly telling voters their polling locations had changed, or harassing calls late at night or on religious holidays.
The controversy’s epicentre is in Guelph, Ont., where Elections Canada is investigating allegations someone from the Conservative campaign deliberately tried to suppress votes by impersonating the election agency in robocalls directing people to the incorrect voting location.
It’s illegal to prevent a person from voting and to induce somebody to vote or not vote for a particular candidate.
Finley says the Conservatives are co-operating with Elections Canada.
“There hasn’t [been] so far, as far as I can determine, one single issue of voter suppression — not one,” he told CBC News. “To me it would appear it’s very isolated. If Guelph is where it is, it’s where it is.”
Robocalling and live campaign calls are legitimate methods of campaigning used by all parties, Finley said. The calls cost pennies and some call centres in Canada are capable of making 200,000 to 300,000 calls an hour, he said.
“Quite frankly, this thing is blown out of proportion. That’s number one,” said Finley. “Number two … if there was a particular attempt at this voter suppression, in Guelph or anywhere else, I have no thought.
“This is the whole point, is that central campaign does not know because they had absolutely no thought what was happening.”
The Conservatives use RMG, Finley said, not Racknine, the call centre through which the Guelph robocalls were placed. RMG does live calls only, he said.
In question period Wednesday, the Conservatives changed tactics, accusing the Liberals and NDP of being sore losers.
“This member and the members of his party have conducted a smear campaign against our party — a completely unsubstantiated smear campaign,” Del Mastro said to NDP MP Charlie Angus.
NDP MPs pointed out that only the Tories have had to pay a fine for breaking election laws. Charges against Finley and other party officials were dropped as part of an agreement that saw the party pay $52,000 in fines for moving money from the national campaign to local campaigns and back in 2006, a tactic that became known as “in and out.”
Conservative MPs had pointed to Guelph campaign worker Michael Sona, who stepped down from his job with MP Eve Adams last week, as being behind the robocalls. But in a statement Tuesday, Sona denied he had anything to do with it and said he resigned from his job because of the controversy over his involvement.
“I have remained silent to this point with the hope that the real guilty party would be apprehended,” he said. “The rumours continue to swirl and media are now involving my family, so I feel that it is imperative that I respond.”
Written by on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 in Latest News.
With 100 days until this year’s European Championship kicks off, Spain, France and the Netherlands continued their preparations with impressive friendly wins Wednesday.
Roberto Soldado scored a hat trick to lead defending European champion Spain to a 5-0 win over Venezuela in Malaga, and France extended its unbeaten run to 18 matches with Oliver Giroud and Florent Malouda scoring for a 2-1 win over Germany in Bremen.
The Netherlands, European champion in 1988 and a three-time World Cup runner-up, withstood a spirited comeback by a makeshift England team to win 3-2 at Wembley, while Italy lost an unbeaten record in Genoa stretching back to 1924 when it lost 1-0 to the United States.
Few coaches will place too much importance upon the result of friendly matches played under relatively small pressure compared to the June 8-July 1 tournament in Poland and Ukraine, with Germany’s Joachim Loew among those to say beforehand he was more concerned with tweaking details and spending time with his players.
But France can take heart from a performance and win that came without several key players. France showed greater imagination in a match that failed to reach the intensity of previous meetings between the two fantastic rivals and Giroud, leading scorer in the French league, place the visitors ahead in the 21st minute with a simple end.
Malouda effectively sealed the win in the 69th, seven minutes after coming on as substitute, and Germany striker Cacau scored an injury-time consolation.
France, which had to endure a playoff to qualify for Euro 2012, has not lost since a 2-0 loss to Spain on March 3, 2011.
With all-time leading scorer David Villa injured and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres dropped from the squad for the first time in five years, Valencia striker Soldado marked his first Spain appearance in four years with three goals in the final friendly before coach Vicente del Bosque picks his tournament squad.
Cesc Fabregas set up goals for Andres Iniesta and David Silva before halftime, and Soldado added three more in his first appearance for the national team since 2007.
Spain has won all four of its matches against Venezuela.
England, led by under-21 coach Stuart Pearce following last month’s resignation of Fabio Capello, looked to have salvaged an improbable draw against the Netherlands when Gary Cahill and Ashley Young made the score 2-2 with just seconds remaining.
Arjen Robben scored his second goal of the match in stoppage time goal to give the visitors a 3-2 victory.
Robben had place the Dutch in front in the 57th, picking up possession deep inside his own half, racing forward and slotting the ball past goalkeeper Joe Hart as England’s defence dropped off. Less than two minutes later, substitute Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored his 31st goal in 50 internationals for 2-0, although he and England defender Chris Smalling both had to be replaced after lengthy treatement for a clash of heads.
Cahill started England’s fightback in the 85th, popping up in an unfamiliar centre forward position to score, and Young lifted the ball into the net five minutes later. But Robben had time to find the net again after being set up by Mark van Bommel.
England can take heart from an entertaining and courageous show, but Italy was stunned by the United States as Clint Dempsey’s second-half goal gave the Americans their first ever victory over the Azzurri in 11 meetings.
Dempsey became only the fourth American to score against Italy when he fired past Gianluigi Buffon in the 55th for Jurgen Klinsmann’s fifth victory in 10 games as U.S. coach.
It also served as a measure of personal revenge for the former Germany fantastic, who lost the 2006 World Cup semifinal with his native country to eventual champion Italy.
Also Wednesday, Ireland salvaged a 1-1 friendly draw against fellow qualifier the Czech Republic when Simon Cox equalized Milan Baros’ 50th-minute opener with four minutes remaining.
Poland and Portugal drew 0-0 in the first match at National Stadium, the venue for the opening game at the European Championship in 100 days’ time, while co-host Ukraine won 3-2 at Israel.
Sweden won 3-1 at Croatia, Greece drew 1-1 with Belgium and Russia won 2-0 at Denmark.
Wales’ hopes of honouring deceased coach Gary Speed with a friendly victory over Costa Rica in Cardiff finished with a 1-0 defeat Wednesday.
