The 2011 Canadian federal election voter suppression scandal (also known as the Robocall scandal, Robogate, or RoboCon) is a political scandal stemming from events during the 2011 Canadian federal election. It involved robocalls and real-person calls that originated in the Conservative Party of Canada's campaign office in Guelph, Ontario. The calls were designed to result in voter suppression. Elections Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) conducted investigations into the claims that calls were made to dissuade voters from casting ballots by falsely telling them that the location of their polling stations had changed. Further possible electoral law violations were alleged as the evidence unfolded. Under the Canada Elections Act, it is an offence to willfully prevent, or endeavour to prevent, an elector from voting in an election.
On Election Day, May 2, 2011, reports of voter suppression, mostly centred on the riding of Guelph, led to the discovery that a computer in the Guelph campaign office had possibly been used to make the calls. While the Elections Canada investigation initially focused on calls sent into Guelph amidst nationwide complaints, the investigation expanded to complaints in other Conservative Party of Canada campaign offices across the country. Court documents filed in mid-August 2012 by the Commissioner of Canada Elections indicated that the elections watchdog had received complaints of fraudulent or misleading calls in 247 of Canada's 308 ridings, recorded in all ten provinces and at least one territory. The allegations received widespread national media attention, and led to a series of protests in March and April 2012 in at least 27 Canadian cities. April 29, 2012, was termed by protest organizers a "National Day Against Election Fraud".
On April 24, 2014, Commissioner of Canada Elections Yves Cote issued a press release that stated, "the Commissioner has concluded that, following a thorough investigation by his Office, the evidence is not sufficient to provide reasonable grounds to believe that an offence was committed. Therefore, the Commissioner will not refer the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions". However in August, 2014, former junior Conservative staffer Michael Sona was found guilty of one violation of the Elections Act.
Voter suppression in Guelph In February 2012, Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen reported that during the 2011 Canadian federal election, misleading phone calls were made in at least 14 ridings, including Guelph, Ontario. The calls directed voters to the wrong polling stations. The fraudulent, automated calls displayed the phone number of a prepaid "burner phone", registered to a "Pierre Poutine" of "Separatist Street" in Joliette, Quebec. In addition, "Pierre Poutine" also used the alias "Pierre Jones" of pierres1630 at gmail.com, living at the fictional address of 54 Lajoie Nord in Joliette, Quebec.
The day before election day, "Pierre Poutine" sent out a series of messages using 2call.ca, an automated call company subsidiary of Edmonton-based Internet service provider RackNine, which directed voters to the wrong voting locations. The calls were falsely displayed as originating from Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote's campaign office. A PayPal account was used to pay for the calls to RackNine, and logged Poutine's credit card information. Both RackNine and Paypal turned over activity and transaction logs to investigators.
A transcript of the false robocall in Guelph, used on election day to impersonate an Elections Canada official, reads: "This is an automated message from Elections Canada. Due to a projected increase in voter turnout, your poll location has been changed. Your new voting location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. Once again, your new poll location is at the Old Quebec Street Mall, at 55 Wyndham Street North. If you have any questions, please call our hotline at 1-800-443-4456. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. (French version recorded in another woman's voice follows.)"
Elections Canada emails were revealed under Access to Information requests, and exposed internal communications on the matter. At 11:06 am on election day, May 2, 2011, election officer Anita Hawdur sent an email to legal counsel Karen McNeil titled: "URGENT Conservative campaign office communication with electors". Hawdur reported that returning officers also called to ask about the calls. Another email was sent from legal counsel to Ronnie Molnar, the deputy Chief Electoral Officer who in turn emailed a senior director: "This one is far more serious. They have actually disrupted the voting process."
In response to the Guelph robocalls alone, 281 people called back Pierre Poutine's cellphone. A voice broadcasting expert contracted by Al Mathews of Elections Canada, estimated that at a typical one-percent call-back rate, the 281 call-backs indicated that many thousands of electors were affected, even considering that the nature of these calls would probably have resulted in a higher callback rate. An affidavit filed to secure a search warrant reported that 7,760 call attempts were made in Guelph.
Elections Canada investigation
The investigation into fraudulent calls in Guelph revealed that thousands of automated calls telling people their voting location had changed were sent shortly after 10:00 am on election day. Complaints flooded into Elections Canada, and a local returning officer called a Guelph-area radio station at 10:53 am and put out an advisory to ignore the calls. Liberal MP Frank Valeriote received a call at his home notifying him that Liberal Party of Canada supporters were being targeted. It quickly emerged that there was an extensive campaign to discourage Liberal supporters. In under an hour, 100 voters arrived at the phony voting location. A signed affidavit indicates that 150 to 200 voters in Guelph showed up at a phony vote location at the Quebec Street Mall; some voters ripped up their voter identification cards in anger. He also noted that all the voters who were targeted had previously indicated they would not vote for the Conservative Party of Canada, when they were contacted by the party. This caused the opposition parties to allege that the calls were a campaign by the Conservative Party to intimidate supporters of other parties.
After being accused by some journalists and politicians of direct involvement, and having a pre-existing business relationship with the Conservative Party, Matt Meier, CEO of RackNine, has described his company as a "non-partisan firm, free from any party affiliation, bias, or designation", that provided services to "political parties across the political spectrum". However, in March 2012, Meier allegedly made a conflicting statement that the company held an exclusive contract with the Conservative Party that precluded them working for other parties during the 2011 election, a standard requirement among all political parties.
RackNine was used legitimately by a number of Conservative candidates, including Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke, and Conservative leader Stephen Harper in Calgary Southwest. In November 2011, an Edmonton judge ordered RackNine to turn over all correspondence, emails and records of contact between the company and representatives of the Conservative Party general election campaign in Guelph, although Elections Canada made clear that "RackNine Inc. is not under investigation for an offence against this Act or any other Act of Parliament".
Elections Canada traced the automated calls to a disposable cellphone in the 450 area code of Joliette, Quebec, and issued a subpoena to the cellphone provider. The provider produced a list of outgoing calls from the same number. One of the calls was found to be made to RackNine; in November 2011 the investigator served RackNine with a production order for records. The account holder associated with the false calls was quickly identified. The owner of RackNine said that he had no idea what had transpired on election day until contacted by an Elections Canada investigator. Phone records show numbers connected with Guelph Conservative candidate Marty Burke and the Guelph Conservative Party riding association made a total of 31 calls to RackNine between March 26 and early May.
On March 28, 2012, Elections Canada indicated that they were closer to identifying the person behind the fraudulent robocalls in Guelph from records obtained from Rogers Communications under a production order. This followed a lead provided by RackNine who provided the IP address used both to set up and use to make the robocalls to constituents in Guelph. Elections Canada emphasized that RackNine itself was not under investigation, and the company had fully cooperated.
Investigators pointed out that whoever set up the account which sent out the fraudulent recorded messages tried hard to cover his or her electronic tracks by using a prepaid credit card to buy a prepaid cellphone, registered an account under a fake name and address, and used a different fake name and address (Pierre Poutine of Separatist Street, Joliette, Quebec) to set up the cellphone. However, the CEO of RackNine was able to trace a specific IP address associated with the calls, which belonged to a private home.
In August 2012, Elections Canada investigators indicated that they had hit a dead end in the Poutine investigation, as the IP address they were tracing resolved to a Guelph residence apparently unconnected to the investigation, although the family living there was inadvertently running an open Wi-Fi connection. The IP address assignment was later shown to have been incorrect. As a result of the lack of progress in the Guelph investigation, the RCMP was called in. Diane Benson, a spokeswoman for Elections Canada, confirmed, "The office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections has been assisted by the RCMP in its investigation in fraudulent calls in the 41st general election."
Pierre Poutine/Pierre Jones had also considered the idea of having calls made to Guelph constituents in the middle of the night, while spoofing the phone number of local Liberal party candidate Frank Valeriote. The intention was to anger and annoy the recipients of these phone calls. The message itself had been recorded but was not transmitted.
Meier also informed Elections Canada that "Pierre" had telephoned him on his "unlisted office number" and had asked to speak with him personally when initially setting up the account. Elections Canada investigator Allan Mathews said, "Pierre referred to knowing someone in the Conservative Party", and, "In Meier's view, these facts mean someone must have given Pierre his contact information".
According to court filings, Elections Canada alleged that someone connected to the Conservative party campaign in Guelph had planned to deceive non-Conservative party supporters by making misleading and harassing telephone calls, either directing voters to non-existent polling stations or by angering them by phoning them in the middle of the night.
Liberal Member of Parliament Marc Garneau requested that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which "can investigate unsolicited calling activity without court orders", be involved in the investigation.