robocalls.jpg

Free Documentary Shows How Conservative Staffers Led Voters to Wrong Polling Stations During 2011 Election

Kelly McCullough says she is angry with herself for believing the information provided to her in an automated call that led her to the wrong polling station during the last 2011 federal election.

“I was very empathetic to people who were at the polling station because clearly they had received several people who had come. They had to let me and other people in my position know that we had foolishly believed what we shouldn’t have,” McCullough says in a new documentary about voter suppression mischief in Canada by filmmaker Peter Smoczynski.

The film, “Election Day in Canada: The Rise of Voter Suppression,” is available in a draft screener form online until midnight, October 18.

In 2011 voters across Canada received automated phone calls, also known as robocalls, that notified them their polling station has been relocated when they in fact had not. Other calls seem designed to harass voters with fake calls from opposition parties late at night or on holidays.

The new documentary film shows how these and other ‘voter suppression’ tactics, such as placing the name of candidates on ballots who were not in the running, were used to the benefit of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Smoczynski plans a full release of the film in 2016 but made an early version of the documentary available to the Canadian public before they hit the polls on election day, October 19.

In the film Smocyznski interviews McCullough and several other residents of Guelph, Ontario where robocalls misled voters in 2011.

“I was definitely frustrated, I was angry with myself for believing the message that I received,” McCullough says. “I was annoyed with my partner for not seeing through the transparency of the robocall he received and then passing along information to me.”

NDP leader Tom Muclair says in the film: “Think about what this is about. This is about phoning people in their homes, impersonating someone from Elections Canada and saying, ‘oh they’ve changed your voting section’ and sending them to the other side of town.”

In late 2014, former Conservative staffer Michael Sona, was sentenced to nine months for his roll in the robocall scandal and interfering with citizen’s ability to vote fairly under the Canada Elections Act. Sona was only 22 at the time of the scandal.

Justice Gary Hearn, an Ontario judge who passed the sentence, said senior Conservative colleagues failed Sona.

In the documentary, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, former CEO of Elections Canada, calls the scandal criminal.

“This is a criminal activity that is beyond competiveness, that is beyond what Canadians expect during an electoral campaign,” he says.

“That is why Canadians in general are so offended by this.”

Watch the preview version of Election Day in Canada: The Rise of Voter Suppression on Vimeo.

We’ve got big plans for 2024
Seeking out climate solutions, big and small. Investigating the influence of oil and gas lobbyists. Holding leaders accountable for protecting the natural world.

The Narwhal’s reporting team is busy unearthing important environmental stories you won’t read about anywhere else in Canada. And we’ll publish it all without corporate backers, ads or a paywall.

How? Because of the support of a tiny fraction of readers like you who make our independent, investigative journalism free for all to read.

Will you join more than 6,000 members helping us pull off critical reporting this year?
We’ve got big plans for 2024
Seeking out climate solutions, big and small. Investigating the influence of oil and gas lobbyists. Holding leaders accountable for protecting the natural world.

The Narwhal’s reporting team is busy unearthing important environmental stories you won’t read about anywhere else in Canada. And we’ll publish it all without corporate backers, ads or a paywall.

How? Because of the support of a tiny fraction of readers like you who make our independent, investigative journalism free for all to read.

Will you join more than 6,000 members helping us pull off critical reporting this year?

Manitoba funds mining exploration in threatened caribou habitat inside provincial park

Manitoba’s efforts to champion its critical mineral sector may be putting one of the province’s most iconic species at risk. During the Prospectors and Developers...

Continue reading

Recent Posts

Thousands of members make The Narwhal’s independent journalism possible. Will you help power our work in 2024?
Will you help power our journalism in 2024?
… which means our newsletter has become the most important way we connect with Narwhal readers like you. Will you join the nearly 90,000 subscribers getting a weekly dose of in-depth climate reporting?
A line chart in green font colour with the title "Our Facebook traffic has cratered." Chart shows about 750,000 users via Facebook in 2019, 1.2M users in 2020, 500,000 users in 2021, 250,000 users in 2022, 100,000 users in 2023.
… which means our newsletter has become the most important way we connect with Narwhal readers like you. Will you join the nearly 90,000 subscribers getting a weekly dose of in-depth climate reporting?
A line chart in green font colour with the title "Our Facebook traffic has cratered." Chart shows about 750,000 users via Facebook in 2019, 1.2M users in 2020, 500,000 users in 2021, 250,000 users in 2022, 100,000 users in 2023.
Overlay Image