Elections Canada under scrutiny

Friday, March 2, 2012 | Categories: Episodes, Feature Interview

Today, we'll talk to the man who was at the helm for many years about investigating alleged wrong-doing. Canada's former chief electoral officer, Jean-Pierre Kingsley believes if the robo-calls really deprived people of their vote in the last federal election, whoever is behind it could face prison.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Friday, March 2nd.

Canada has finally committed itself to remaining involved in the International Space Station beyond 2015.

Currently, Canadian astronauts have received automated phone messages ordering them to an orbiting lab in Guelph.

This is The Current.

Elections Canada under scrutiny

Elections Canada is conducting at least two investigations into allegations of vote suppression in last year's federal election. In the riding of Guelph, Ontario, the election watchdog is looking into complaints that automated calls, or robo-calls, deliberately sent voters to the wrong location to vote.

The second investigation targets a Thunder Bay call centre that was hired by the Conservative Party. Former staffers at RMG are alleged to have misled voters as well.

Yesterday, we spoke with Duff Conacher from Democracy Watch who says its not clear how successful Elections Canada is when it looks into alleged cases of electoral fraud.

But now that dozens of ridings report misleading calls during the election, Elections Canada is coming under closer scrutiny. Jean-Pierre Kingsley was Canada's Chief Electoral Officer from 1990 until 2007 and the former president of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. He was in Ottawa.

This segment was produced by The Current's Kathleen Goldhar and Ottawa Network Producer, Neil Morrison.

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