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."

Press Release - Call to a Rally this Sunday

It started in Vancouver last weekend, and has moved across country now to Toronto and Guelph this Sunday. I got this press release today about the Guelph Rally for Democracy this Sunday downtown. If you're in the mood to protest after church or CNN's Reliable Sources, then make thee down to St. George's Square and follow the below instructions:

Guelph Rally for Democracy, Sunday March 11th, St. George’s Square at 1pm, City Hall at 2pm

This Sunday citizens of Guelph will come together to raise their voices against electoral fraud and to show their support for democracy. This is the same day that similar rallies will be taking place in Toronto, Montréal, Calgary and Peterborough.

This non-partisan event will be focused on specific demands of government, including: an immediate  independent, public inquiry into the fraud; full accountability, including up to the Prime Minister’s Office, if necessary; and by-elections in each affected riding.

There will be speakers from the Council of Canadians, Guelph Labour Council and the University of Guelph’s Central Student Association.

People will meet at St. George’s Square at 1pm with signs and banners, and will walk to City Hall at 2pm.

Supported by: Council of Canadians-Guelph Chapter, U of G Central Students Association, OPIRG, Beyond Occupy, Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice, CUPE, Guelph Labour Council

The View From the Polling Station

If you've never worked at a polling station on election day, it's an experience well worth having. Seeing the mechanics of democracy, in action, from behind the scenes is amazing. And though it might sound boring to sit there all day and administer paper ballots and direct people to where they should be, the time actually goes by pretty quick.

Yesterday, I was an Information Officer at St. Francis of Assisi. I welcomed people that walked though the front doors of the school, directed them down the hall to the gym and checked to make sure that they had the proper ID with them to ensure the smooth processing of voters. You'd be surprised to learn how many people can't follow the rather simple instructions on voting procedure and what ID they need to vote. Several people brought in the brochure that outlined the types of ID they needed and what that ID needed to say, and they still didn't have the correct information. (Usually, they were forgetting something with their address on it.) 

And don't even get me started on how many people either forgot their Voter Information Card, said they misplaced it, and even admitted to throwing it out. 

The big news was the robocalls telling voters that their polling place was changed, too busy, or closed early. After the first couple of people told me about the robocalls I phoned it in to Elections Canada HQ in Guelph, and they told me that they had heard several other complaints as well. What happened with the crank calls has been well-covered by now (with the exception of who's behind them). One industrious woman gave me the phone number of the caller thanks to the miracle of called ID. I tried ringing the number, with its Montreal area code, and got an inaudible name before being directed to the number's already full voice mail box. Whoever is behind it, the robocalls were dirty pool, and considering the attempted (and occasional successful) disruption of democracy, I would go so far as to call it treasonous. Yes, these people are enemies of democracy, and should be treated as such.

Otherwise, it was a pretty smooth day at the polls. I met and talked to a lot of nice people. Some of them were veteran voters, some of them were there for the first time ever. There was no political sniping, no negativity, no shouting or hair pulling, just pleasant people exercising their constitutional right to choose the government. It's just too bad that more people still don't avail themselves of the opportunity.