Robocall Townhall Shows Community Still Worried

Are you worried about another robocall scandal? Judging from the turnout at a townhall at St. James Anglican Church here in Guelph today, a lot of us are. Between 80 and 100 people showed up for the event organized by Fair Vote Guelph and the St. James' Environment and Social Justice Committee, and on the eve of the start of the last parliamentary session before the 2015 election, it sure sounded like there was still a lot to be concerned about even after the conviction of Michael Sona last summer. A combination of politicians, experts and ordinary citizens came out to remember how we got here, and what we should be on the look out next.

Editorial - Final Thoughts About Sona Trial

A week ago today, Michael Sona was sentenced to nine months in prison and one year of probation. From all accounts it was an emotional affair for Sona's family as he was lead away in cuffs, remanded to begin his jail sentence, which could be as short as three months ultimately. In a sense, Sona was sentenced in this case long before last Thursday. Once a valued political operative in the party that so thoroughly stuffed hum under the bus to be run over again and again, he's lost friends, respect, and a career that could have taken him all the way to party leadership or his own elected position in Parliament. Now he's a machinist's apprentice going to prison for a crime that was much bigger than himself. Ultimately, Sona's biggest crimes were foolishness and naivety.

Sona Found Guilty But May Not Have Acted Alone

Crown Prosecutor Croft Michaelson talks to media after the verdict

Wrapping up an odyssey that's been in play for over three years, Michael Sona was found guilty in a Guelph courtroom this morning of "willfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent an elector from voting." After a summation of the trial and the facts offered into evidence, Judge Gary Hearn rendered his judgment to a packed gallery of media and observers at the provincial courthouse on Wyndham Street. Hearn said that upon consideration of the "balance of evidence" he was satisfied that Sona had aided and abetted the May 2, 2011 robocall scheme to misdirect nearly 7,000 Guelph voters to different polling stations, and "was a party to it."

The Sona Trial ...In Conclusion

The trial of Michael Sona finally came to a close Monday as the lawyers made their summations before Judge Gary Hearn. Both Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson and attorney for Michael Sona Norm Boxall made their final pitch for Sona's guilty and innocence respectively, and while for many people the question of guilt or innocence is one they already know the answer to, Judge Hearn will undoubtedly have a tougher time of it given the strength of both men's arguments. For his part, Boxall stayed the course and threw the robocall ball to Andrew Prescott and Ken Morgan. Michaelson, meanwhile, said that the evidence establishes Sona's guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Editorial - 12 Angry Mentions from the Sona Trial

 

It was a long time coming, and to say that it was something of a disappointment is an understatement. Although many people wanted the trial of the century, what's clear is just how tenuous the case against Sona is, and maybe how badly this investigation's been bungled if this is the only case that can make it trial. In the details though, the case being tried in a Guelph court and scheduled to wrap up Monday with closing arguments has been fascinating. There's been personal betrayals, tall tales, stunning silences, and a startling lack of curiosity. In some ways, it's not a matter of how can anyone have gotten away with this, it's how could they not get away with it. In the case of the robocall trial there's no real certainty, even of the guilt of the accused. Here are a dozen of my observations from the trial.

Sona Trial Day #2 - Into the RackNine Matrix

Day two of the robocall trial dispatched two witnesses quickly before getting to the first star witness of the trial, RackNine CEO Mark Meier. If day one set up the dynamics of the Burke campaign and the personalities involved, then day two was about the technobabble of the autodial technology: who had access, who had the means, and who had the opportunity. The defense thinks that person is Andrew Prescott, and I'm not entirely convinced that the Crown doesn't think it either.

Sona Trial Begins With Testimony from Burke Campaign Team

For local politicos, this was the biggest thing to hit the Guelph scene since we had back-to-back federal elections in 2008. I know, we lead a dull life, but for everyone who have wanted to see some kind of justice come out of the 2011 attempt to defraud voters of their right to vote, all hope now rests on Courtroom #2 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Guelph. Michael Sona, the communications director for the Marty Burke campaign, arrived for the start of his trial in fine spirits. He said he felt "great" and was looking forward to seeing how it all played out. What played out Monday was a recital of uncertainty as the first three witnesses called to testify teetered between throwing Sona under the bus (again) and exonerating him by omission.

Robocalls: Case Closed

And just like that, it was over. Elections Canada let it be known far and wide yesterday that “the evidence gathered in the investigation does not lend support to the existence of a conspiracy or conspiracies to interfere with the voting process" as a result of their investigation into fraudulent robocalls made on Election Day 2011. And that, as they say, is that. I guess.

Prescott Knows Pierre?

Just when everyone seemed content with the idea that Michael Sona had been run over by the bus enough times, we get breaking news yesterday that the so-called Christian Conservative Independent Andrew Prescott has reached an immunity deal for his alleged involvement in the Pierre Poutine/robocall scandal. According to CBC, Prescott has received notice that "the Crown has no intention" of charging him in connection with misleading phone calls in Guelph on the last Federal Election Day that directed voters to illegitimate polling stations. But if Prescott is getting protection from the law, does that mean he's turning in evidence on someone else? And of course we mean someone bigger than Sona.

Robocalls - The "We Just Kidding" Excuse

The legal action around the 2011 robocall scandal is another reminder that real-life legal proceedings are nothing like Law & Order; one hour and you're done! The bad guys are in jail, and it's on to the next case. The comparatively glacial pace of real-life legal matters as compared to their fictional TV counterparts in understandable - We want justice, and we want it now! - but the wheels of jurisprudence grind slowly and deliberately. Every once and a while though, news breaks and we get somewhat closer to a resolution.

In the news this week were the details of a partially lifted publication ban on the case thus far against Michael Sona, director of communications for the Guelph campaign of Marty Burke during the 2011 election. Sona is charged with wilfully preventing or endeavouring to prevent a voter from casting a ballot, and the court placed a publication ban on the case this past August. After petitioning by various media sources, including PostMedia and the CBC, the ban was partially lifted in September, but the full ban coming off this past Wednesday. As for Sona himself, court proceedings have been held over till June at which point it will be decided whether or not Sona will be taken to trial, but the new papers suggest that he maybe somewhat less than the innocent pawn he's been selling himself as since he was thrown under the bus by the party he so loyally served last year.

Sona What?

National Post Editorial Cartoon

 Obviously, it was big news earlier this week when it was announced that Michael Sona would be charged in relation to the robocall scandal that has many Canadians concerned about the safety and validity of their democracy. The single solitary charge under the Elections Act, that Sona alleged to “wilfully prevent or endeavour to prevent an elector from voting at an election,” will be heard in court early next month, but astute politicos are wondering what the long term implications may be.

Robocall: Notes From a Year Later

A couple of weeks ago I was on Twitter and I read a post by Andrew Prescott, AKA: the blogger Christian Conservative. He addressed the tweet to Donald Trump and asked The Donald to come to Ontario where he can continue the good work fighting wind mills as he did in Scotland. Forget that Trump is basically fighting an entire Scottish town on this so that he can open some ghastly golf course he'll undoubtedly drive into bankruptcy, but as I said a few weeks ago on "Beyond the Ballot Box," if Trump comes to Ontario to protest wind mills, I'll support him so long as he campaigns to see Stephen Harper's birth certificate while he's here.

Joking aside though, I find these kinds of posts from Prescott as irksome as I find them tiresome. Not just because he's one of the few people in the free world that continues to beatify Trump - whose own kids after his election day meltdown last November told him to pucker up - but because in midst of Prescott's identification of so call liars and "Fiberals" he seems to forget that he, himself, has a lot to answer for.

The Escape Hatch - A Robocall Update

It's hard to believe its been almost a year since Pierre Poutine became a national scandal, and by "Pierre Poutine" I mean the somewhat clever nom du plume of the perpetrator(s) of the robocall scandal and not the charming eating establishment in Downtown Guelph.

The investigation, it seems, has reached an impasse. At least from the public perception of it. At last report, as many as five individuals with the Marty Burke campaign in 2011 had accessed a Conservative database of voters from the same I.P. address that M. Poutine used to go about his dirty business. But still, despite the ongoing ambiguity, that doesn't mean that the players in this vicious political game of Clue aren't still making news.

Whatever Happened to Pierre Poutine?

On the Gang of Four a couple of weeks ago we talked about the robocall scandal and what news had since been developing there. If you were hoping that the case was wrapped up in neat little package like a typical Law & Order episode, you'll be disappointed, but we all took the red pill last spring and we're seeing just how far down the rabbit hole goes.

And the rabbit hole has brought us a community southwest of Guelph, and a nondescript home to five residents who all had access to the same IP address from which Pierre Poutine went about his local vote defrauding efforts. For the less technical among us, an IP, or Internet Protocol, address is the distinctive number that identifies where you are when you're on the internet. The thing is that you can do a Google search and in a fraction of a second get several thousand results that will tell you how to hide your IP address. 

That's why when Elections Canada went to the home of the IP address Pierre Poutine used, they found five residents who knew nothing about the Marty Burke campaign in Guelph, knew no one involved with the Marty Burke campaign, and had to connection whatsoever to the campaign and the campaigners. A dead end, right? 

Christian Conservative Speaks... Cryptically

Ever since the breaking of the robocall scandal back in March, the former members of the Marty Burke campaign, including Burke himself, have gone into silent running mode, including Burke's Deputy Campaign Manager Andrew Prescott.

If there's a reason that Prescott's silence stuck out a little more than Michael Sona's, Ken Morgan's or even Burke's himself it's because Prescott is (or was) a fairly active blogger under the handle Christian Conservative. The last post on that blog was dated February 5th, at least a month and a half before the robocall issue went full tilt national scandal, at which point Guelph specifically, and the Burke campaign team even more specifically, went under the microscope. On blogs and on social media, Guelph's Christian Conservative's been eerily silent.

Until now.

Who Is Pierre Poutine?

Not that one, the other one.

It's the most pressing question of our time. Bigger than "Who is John Galt?" which is now so ubiquitous that Lululemon put it on a bag.

On a recent post on #CDNPoli, blogger Brian-Michel LaRue, "a 29 year old Canadian-American from Montréal, sometimes journalist, sometimes DJ, professional traveler, quite the amateur photographer and writer," revealed Pierre Poutine as Andrew Prescott, local blogger and deputy campaign manager for Marty Burke in last year's Federal Election.

Well, case closed then.