On Friday, Canada’s notorious robocall
propagandist Stephen Maher published yet another “Gotcha!” moment in the robocall conspiracy: that some Conservatives in the riding of
Laurier-Sainte-Marie never actually donated to the Conservative campaign,
despite the Conservative’s financial statements saying they did.
Of course, it all blew up when it
turned out those individuals did donate
to the party, and it turned out Maher published his bogus story without even bothering
to ask the Conservative Party for comment.
But there’s a more concerning issue here:
“Postmedia
tried to contact all the donors on the riding’s donor list from 2007 to 2009,
almost 550 people. Many failed to return calls; others could not be located.”
Here’s the Elections Canada database,
in which you can search for any person who’s donated to a political party. No issue there: it’s publicly available
information.
Anyone can click on a person’s name,
which opens up a pop-up window which says the person’s name, city, province,
and postal code. That’s it.
So here’s what concerns me: how was Maher able to contact these
individual donors – indeed voters – when
the only information Elections Canada publicly provides is the postal code?
As if it’s not sleazy enough to have
these two rifling through garbage cans to stir up their next false controversy,
it’s just plain suspicious to be attempting to contact voters – and succeed at
least 11 times.
From whom did Maher obtain these
voters’ information?
How many times did Maher attempt to
contact them?
At what times of the day did Maher
attempt to contact them?
What exactly did Maher say to these
individuals once he got a hold of them?
What exactly did these individuals say
to Maher?
How did Maher contact these
voters? Elections Canada apparently does not track phone numbers,
so are we to believe Maher contacted over 500 people by mail – and by postal
code only, no less?
And secondly, if Maher was able to use another source of information to contact voters, doesn't that prove he's using another party's database (or some other voter ID software) to contact these voters?
And secondly, if Maher was able to use another source of information to contact voters, doesn't that prove he's using another party's database (or some other voter ID software) to contact these voters?
Most importantly of all, is there a
leak at Elections Canada? At worst, they
could be providing confidential access to voters lists, which is not allowed:
Safeguarding your personal information
Elections Canada takes precautions to ensure that the information contained in the National Register of Electors is kept secure and used for authorized purposes only. Employees' access to the Register is carefully controlled, and the database itself is physically secured and protected by hardware, software, firewalls and procedural controls.
We already know Elections Canada has
had employees leaking information to the media for months,
so it’s not a far stretch.
What do you think?
This is something the RCMP and OPP should be looking into, followed by monster libel lawsuits against the various parties identified after the criminal charges are laid....
ReplyDeleteYeah, as if THAT is gonna happen!
DeleteThe stench is overwhelming. And it smells like pig, on BOTH sides of the border...
A postal code is basically a bar code of your address and it is publicly available. For example, type someone’s postal code into the search window of Google Earth and it'll beam you right down into that neighborhood. It isn't exact, as it will include other people’s residences too but it'll get you close. So it wouldn’t be hard to track down the riding where people live using their postal code.
ReplyDeleteBut this is certainly a sleaze stunt. I wonder how many knew that they’d be spotlighted like this and whether they gave their approval. This story stinks to high heaven and has all the earmarks of a setup.
What do I think? I think the writer of this piece has never heard of Canada 411, aka reverse lookup.
ReplyDeleteOr, you know, the phone book.
I used to put my last name and postal code -only- as my return address. Canada Post knew that I was the only person on my street with that last name, so any misdirected mail would be returned to me. I can presume that any mail sent to me, with only my name and postal code, would find me in a similar manner. If you send out 500 cards to Last Name / Postal Code then you can legitimately say that you tried to contact them and that they did not return your call. Some of them might have moved, over a two year period, and so could not be located.
ReplyDeleteThere was no original story here, and there is no story claiming that the original non-story was a story.
So armed only with a name, city, province, and postal code this guy was able to find people. Did he hire detectives, use sophisticated hacking techniques or worse yet, a PHONEBOOK!
ReplyDelete"And secondly, if Maher was able to use another source of information to contact voters, doesn't that prove he's using another party's database (or some other voter ID software) to contact these voters?"
ReplyDeleteNo, because with a name and address, you can pretty much just use a phone book to find most residential phone numbers. You know, those big white books that list people's names, addresses, and phone numbers, which also exist in easily searchable on-line versions.
There used to be this thing called a telephone book. If you had a name, you could usually find a person's number. I think it's available on a website now. While it is not impossible that Maher got phone numbers by hacking Revenue Canada or bribing somebody at the DMV, the more likely explanation is that he looked them up using publicly available means, which even you or I could stoop to, such as -- gasp -- canada411.com or --retch-- facebook!
ReplyDeleteAggh! The stench of garbage!
Small tremors still shake the land after an unregistered toxic runaway astroid from the prorogue petro alliance planet blew a smoking hole in the last vestiges of democracy and the right of Canadians to exercise their vote without interference, suppression or fraud.
ReplyDeleteThe concept that an individual Canadian's vote actually 'counted' was also taken out as collateral damage.. via 'vote moving', unregistered voters, and the actions of mysterious voting station volunteers/scrutineers who have never been identified.
Fortunately, The Harper Government and its brave evangelical anti abortion MP's, Ministers, law firms and spokespersons have assured us it really didn't happen in 234 ridings across Canada.. just in Guelph they say .. via a mysterious rogue operator with access to every Conservative data asset, and phone resource.
Seems to me that Mr Maher is actually trying to find out what exactly happened, who did it, why they did it.. And that is more than almost anyone commenting here.. has attempted. How Mr Maher got those phone numbers ? Why not ask him ?
As Maher just proved, you don't need any party database to call voters, only phonebooks and online searches.
Delete"The concept that an individual Canadian's vote actually 'counted' was also taken out as collateral damage.. via 'vote moving', unregistered voters, and the actions of mysterious voting station volunteers/scrutineers who have never been identified."
I suggest using google and searching Liberal Anne McLellan in regards to unregistered voters. Might actually open your eyes that Liberals are the party of dirty tricks.
Uh, no, you type the voter's name and city into an online phone book, and call to confirm that the Conservative filings were accurate.
ReplyDeleteIt requires a telephone book, and a phone, people.