Lawsuit challenging election results can go ahead

An Ottawa man dressed as a robot is seen on Parliament Hill in this April 1, 2012, file photo. The Federal Court has ruled that a Council of Canadians lawsuit aimed at overturning the election results in seven ridings where voters reported receiving deceptive "robocall" telephone calls can go ahead.

 

The Montreal Gazette:

Ottawa — The Federal Court ruled Thursday that a Council of Canadians lawsuit aimed at overturning the election results in seven ridings where voters reported receiving deceptive telephone calls can go ahead.

The Conservative Party had sought to have the case thrown out before evidence could be presented, arguing that it was a frivolous and vexatious suit, but federal prothonotary Martha Milczynski ruled Thursday that the case can go ahead, stating that without judicial scrutiny, fraudulent electoral calls "could shake public confidence and trust in the electoral process."

"Far from being frivolous or vexatious, or an obvious abuse, 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 and/or manipulate or interfere with that right being exercised freely."

Steven Shrybman, the lawyer handling for the council, argued that the applicants only learned of an apparent attempt to keep voters from going to the polls after media reports on Feb. 23.
The court ruled, though, that when voters received calls misdirecting them on election day, they could not have known that they "could have been part of a fraud or corrupt or illegal practice," and said a determination requires "a full evidentiary record."

The council, a nationalist, left-leaning citizen advocacy group, is seeking to have the court throw out the results in seven ridings where Conservatives won close races: Don Valley East, Elmwood—Transcona, Nipissing—Timiskaming, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, Vancouver Island North, Winnipeg South Centre and Yukon.

Each of the applications is from a voter who received a call telling them that their polling station had moved, seemingly as part of a concerted attempt to prevent opposition supporters from voting.
The council has also presented evidence from a Conservative call centre worker in Thunder Bay, Annette Desgagne, who signed an affidavit stating that she made calls in at least one of the ridings — Nipissing—Timiskaming — directing opposition supporters to the wrong polling stations.

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