GreenGoo wrote: Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:05 am
Scoop20906 wrote: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:41 pm
So I am wondering if this is a crime. He is approached about releasing stolen emails in an attempt to influence the election. Is that illegal? I mean, leave Russia out of it for a moment.
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If it's not American, it almost certainly is against the laws covering elections, and that's not even considering the word "stolen" beside the word "emails". Is Don Jr. guilty of anything? depends on how he was involved.
Up here we had a a campaign hire an American firm to make cold calls. If it had been an Canadian company, no problem. Since it wasn't, major drama and investigation.
Max probably remembers better than I do. Hopefully he can clarify any details I've gotten wrong.
There isn't actually anything wrong with Canadian politicians using American call centers.
The scandal, such as it was, was that the Conservatives falsely accused the Liberals of doing so, while doing it themselves.
CBC News has learned that more than a dozen Conservative MPs employed U.S.-based political telemarketing firms during the last federal election campaign, contrary to Stephen Harper’s statement in Parliament this week.
The prime minister and his parliamentary secretary, Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, claimed in the Commons that the Liberals were the only party that used American calling firms.
"We’ve done some checking," the PM said, and "we’ve only found that it was the Liberal Party that did source its phone calls from the United States."
But documents show 14 Conservative campaigns enlisted the telephone services of an Ohio company called Front Porch Strategies.
During the election, the company made thousands of calls into each of those Canadian ridings from its headquarters in Columbus.
In fact, Del Mastro’s own campaign used the American firm twice during his successful bid for re-election last year.
Del Mastro was already left red-faced earlier this week after he accused the Liberals of using an American telemarketing firm which, in fact, is a Canadian company.
A source connected to Front Porch tells CBC News that all the calls from Ohio to Del Mastro’s riding during the election were programmed to show the telephone number of his local campaign headquarters, masking the fact the phoning was being done from Ohio.
Front Porch’s calls to 13 other ridings on behalf of Conservative candidates operated in the same way, the source said.
There is nothing illegal about Canadian political campaigns using the services of American telemarketing firms, and it is unclear why the Conservatives tried to tarnish the Liberals with the issue.
The real scandal, though, was the Conservatives using
robocalls to sow disinformation about polling stations, in an attempt to suppress opposition votes.
