Sentencing act to cost billions: report - Canada. New legislation limiting the credit given to prisoners for time served in custody before and during their trials will cost taxpayers $1 billion to implement and billions more to maintain, the parliamentary budget officer said Tuesday. The construction of new correctional facilities alone will cost about $1.8 billion over five years, parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page said in a report quantifying the implications of the Truth in Sentencing Act.
A further $618 million will be needed annually for capital appropriations and operations and maintenance costs. Parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, seen here in 2008, released a report into the projected costs of incarceration at a press conference on Tuesday. ((Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)) "I knew incarceration was expensive," Page told reporters Tuesday morning. "When we do the simple math in terms of longer stays, which means higher head counts and we know how expensive … incarceration is, you get to big numbers in a hurry.
" Elections Canada commissioner declines to hand over robocalls investigation data to Federal Court. OTTAWA — Elections Canada has updated the number of complaints it received over misleading election phone calls but is refusing to provide more details in Federal Court about its ongoing “robocalls” investigations. By Aug. 16, the agency had fielded 1,394 complaints alleging specific instances of misleading phone calls during the election from people in 234 different ridings, according to new data provided by the Commissioner of Canada Elections. The total marks a sharp increase on the approximately 700 complaints that Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand cited when he spoke to a parliamentary committee in March. The figures were released by the Commissioner of Canada Elections in response to a request from the applicants in a series of Federal Court challenges that seek to overturn the election results in seven ridings won by Conservative candidates.
The Council of Canadians, an activist public-interest group, is backing the applications. Hepburn: Can we save democracy from Harper’s abuses? As Stephen Harper continues his relentless assault on our democratic institutions and traditions, growing numbers of Canadians are wondering if the prime minister can be stopped — and if so, how? Given the Conservative majority in Parliament, it may seem impossible to prevent Harper from running roughshod over our democracy. Encouragingly, though, people across Canada are starting to fight back. They are doing it in small ways, in classrooms and weekend workshops, on websites and at coffee parties, by writing letters and even joining a knitting campaign.
To date, their efforts have gone largely unnoticed by politicians. But organizers for these initiatives believe they are participating in the birth of a grassroots movement. Since Harper took power six years ago, the Conservatives have slashed funds for agencies promoting democracy, suppressed public information, shut down Parliament twice for partisan political reasons, violated election financing rules and lied to voters. Stephen Harper’s not-so-permanent majority. Canadian conservatives are giddy with the notion that Canada is moving in their direction. A new book by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson argues that our country’s population has undergone a seismic shift toward the political right, a situation that will make Stephen Harper and his heirs “perpetually dominating.”
The Big Shift inoculates itself against critique by asserting that anyone who doesn’t recognize this new national order is part of an out-of-touch clique they call “The Laurentian Elites.” At the risk of seeming to fall into this category, I’d say that it’s actually the book’s authors who are missing the larger trend. Canadian conservatives have a lot in common with their American counterparts: They seem to think that if they make twice as much noise they must be twice as numerous. Bricker is a pollster, so here’s a number he may find compelling: Only last week, an EKOS poll found that just 37% of Canadians feel the country has been moving right. National Post. Elections Canada has 1,400 complaints about 'improper' campaign calls. OTTAWA - Elections Canada has received complaints about "alleged improper telephone calls" from more than 75% of federal ridings since the 2011 election.
By August, the federal agency tasked with overseeing elections received 1,394 complaints regarding 234 of 308 electoral districts, according to court documents filed by the commissioner of Elections Canada. "The commissioner's investigation is ongoing," John Laskin, a representative for the office, said in the documents. The volume of phone call complaints received by Elections Canada has ballooned since the office originally received 70 complaints "alleging forms of improper telephone communications" during or shortly after the May 2011 election. About nine months after Canadians hits the polls, the agency received more than 800 grievances after robocall media reports surfaced and the Liberal Party of Canada, the Council of Canadians and the CBC solicited voter complaints. "These are not the Council of Canadians' legal actions. Is it time for an official inquiry into the robocall scandal? | Canada Politics.
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If you do not want us and our partners to use cookies and personal data for these additional purposes, click 'Reject all'. If you would like to customize your choices, click 'Manage privacy settings'. Elections Canada probe into voter-suppression calls sticks to Guelph. Court documents released Monday show Elections Canada investigators have not sought phone or Internet records for any fraudulent or deceptive calls beyond Guelph, Ont. OTTAWA — Elections Canada has reported that it is investigating complaints of fraudulent and deceptive calls across Canada, but court documents made public Monday show that investigators have not sought phone or Internet records for any calls beyond Guelph, Ont., raising a question about how vigorously the agency is looking into reports from voters.
Last month, as part of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in seven ridings, the Council of Canadians asked Elections Canada for details about the agency’s investigation into reports of calls across the country, including many that appeared to direct opposition supporters to the wrong polling stations. The attached documents all related to the agency’s long and frustrating investigation into a single fraudulent robocall campaign in Guelph, Ont. smaher@postmedia.com. Documents show Elections Canada is not investigating robocalls outside Guelph - Need to know. Court documents made public Monday show investigators at Elections Canada are not investigating the robocalls affair nationally, the National Post reports. Although spokespersons from Elections Canada have told the public that they are making a full investigation into reports of fraudulent and deceptive calls across Canada during the 2011 election, they have not sought phone or Internet records for any calls beyond Guelph, Ont.
While Guelph has been the epicenter of news from the robocalls scandal, Elections Canada has received complaints from over 200 ridings across the country. The documents give no indication of any investigation beyond the hunt for the “Pierre Poutine” suspect behind fraudulent robocalls made to non-Conservative voters in Guelph in 2011. Elections Canada has reported that it received 1,394 complaints about alleged misleading robocalls in 234 ridings. Robocalls investigation has cost only $240 000 so far. Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand told a parliamentary committee in March that financial restraints would not be a factor in the probe. Photograph by: PAT MCGRATH , THE OTTAWA CITIZEN OTTAWA — Elections Canada has run up a bill of nearly $240,000 for costs related to the investigation of misleading phone calls in last year’s election. A document obtained by the Ottawa Citizen through the Access to Information and Privacy Act (ATIP) shows Elections Canada spent $239,353 on casual employees, investigators and other expenses related to the robocalls probe since February.
These costs are above and beyond the work done on robocalls complaints by agency staff and Elections Canada’s team of in-house investigators. But the comparatively low figure bolsters suggestions that Elections Canada isn’t aggressively pursuing its investigation of alleged vote-suppression calls beyond the riding of Guelph. Another investigator, André Thouin, was paid $19,913. . © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen. Harper’s one-man foreign policy winning few friends. When Latin American countries become increasingly critical of Prime Minister Harper’s attitude and policies towards their region, with some leaders even questioning the value of Canadian membership in the Organization of American States, OAS, something is very very wrong with Canada’s relations with its hemispheric neighbours. This negative attitude towards the Harper government was once again in the news in recent days when OAS states were angered by Ottawa’s refusal to accept an August 24 resolution by the OAS criticizing Britain for threatening to forcibly enter the embassy of Ecuador in London to seize Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, who sought asylum in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden and the United States.
Although the OAS resolution stated Britain had no right to enter any diplomatic premises under the Vienna Convention, the Harper government said Canada regarded the issue as a bilateral matter and “the OAS is not the appropriate forum to address this issue.” Jason Kenney and the lawyers - Beyond The Commons, Capital Read. Voter supression case to be heard in December - Politics. The Council of Canadians, chaired by Maude Barlow, is seeking to overturn election results in seven federal ridings, based on allegations of misleading calls during the 2011 election.
(Canadian Press) The legal challenge seeking to overturn last year's federal election result in seven ridings won by Conservatives will be heard in court in mid-December, the Council of Canadians said Wednesday. The group is backing nine voters who say there is evidence of voter suppression and that the election result should be overturned in ridings where the result was close. They say a pattern of misleading calls, both live and automated robocalls, shows a co-ordinated effort to keep Canadians away from the polls on May 2, 2011. The Council of Canadians said that a hearing of the evidence has been scheduled for Dec. 10 to 14. However, the case will be in court before then, in September, because of ongoing arguments related to it. Vote Moving, Canadian Election Fraud, 281 (f), pierre poutine, racknine, robo-calls. Elections Canada charts vote fraud rate at 2 votes per poll. Vote-moving Canadian election fraud.
2700 reasons to investigate. The following is taken from the cbc.ca website. "What's new is that an influx of unregistered voters somehow got on the voters list in Eglinton-Lawrence without providing the address information that Elections Canada requires. At least 2,700 such applications were approved and signed by an elections official so that the applicant could vote. But an examination by CBC News shows most of them have address problems. Some give addresses of a bank or a UPS store, where nobody lives.
Others have no address at all. And most have no previous address -- which is required to ensure that voters aren't on the list at both old and new residences. " We know of at least 2700 reasons to have an investigation. Harper'Lyin King' Lawyer for activist group asks Elections Canada for more details on its robocalls investigation. Steven Shrybman, lawyer for the Council of Canadians, wrote to Elections Canada’s lawyer on Wednesday, asking for documents and statistics that could help bolster claims that pre-recorded and live calls during the last federal election campaign made to voters suppressed enough votes to change the outcome in the ridings. Photograph by: Pat McGrath , Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA — A group seeking to overturn the results of last year’s election in seven ridings has asked Elections Canada to provide more details of its ongoing investigation of the robocalls affair.
The lawyer for the Council of Canadians wrote to the electoral agency’s lawyer on Wednesday, asking for documents and statistics that could help bolster claims that pre-recorded and live calls made to voters suppressed enough votes to change the outcome in the ridings. Elections Canada has stayed mum about the investigation since Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand appeared before a committee hearing in March. [09-Aug-12] Council responds to Conservative filings in election fraud challenges. On Aug. 8, 2012, the Conservative MPs in the election fraud cases filed several affidavits in response to the evidence filed by the applicants. These include affidavits from the campaign managers in the seven electoral districts at issue and Mr. Langhorne, an executive with RMG, the voter contact telephone service provider for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).
The campaign managers and Mr. Langhorne attempt to refute the applicants’ contention of widespread voter fraud during the May 2011 election by denying that they had any involvement in such activities. It is not surprising that CPC witnesses are saying that they had no part in carrying out voter suppression activities during the May 2011 election. In fact no specific allegation of wrongdoing has been made by the applicants against the candidates or anyone else in the Conservative Party. Related documents can be found at: www.canadians.org/election. Justice 4 Sale -Conservatives ask court challengers for $250K deposit - Politics. A lawyer for seven Conservative MPs whose 2011 election wins are being challenged in Federal Court wants to see a $250,000 deposit on costs in case the challengers lose.
Nine Canadians in seven ridings have mounted the court challenge, backed by the Council of Canadians, a regular foe of the Conservative government. In an email sent to supporters, Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow says lawyers for the seven Conservative MPs have asked the challengers to put up $250,000 to cover the MPs' costs in case the challengers lose. The Council of Canadians is backing nine voters who say there is evidence of voter suppression in the last federal election and that the election result should be overturned in ridings where the result was close. They say a pattern of misleading calls, both live and automated robocalls, shows a co-ordinated effort to keep Canadians away from the polls on May 2, 2011. The applicants are challenging the election results in these ridings: Defence costs 'significant'
Tories prepared to work with Parti Quebecois. Convenient. Jim Harris: Harper Conquers Canada, One Robocall at a Time. Article: Lawyer frustrated with Elections Canada inaction over alleged election spending scheme. Elections Canada already has power to clean up election system, it has an enforcement problem, say experts. Canada News: Tories breaking law over spending cuts secrecy, say lawyers. Jim Harris: Harper Conquers Canada, One Robocall at a Time.
Harper government stonewalled detainee investigation, military watchdog concludes. Naming of Chuck Strahl to spy oversight agency is predictable and depressing. Ex-PMO aide Carson's lobbying probe complete - Politics. The Bruce Carson controversy - Canada. DelMastro-Corruption-CBC. New evidence backs claims of questionable Dean Del Mastro donations. Ten things Stephen Harper hopes you forget by 2015. Del Mastro lawyer wants meeting with Elections Canada - Politics. Alleged robo-calling may have significantly impacted voting. ConCalls: Dean Del Mastro Investigated – UPDATED | Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff. DEMOCRACY 24-7. Jean feared Tory ‘publicity machine’ when Harper sought prorogation, ex-adviser says. ConCalls: Now it Gets Interesting #RoboCon | Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff. July 1 2012: national stop harper day.
Election polling station 'errors' raise troubling questions - Politics. PM’s statement on when he knew about Duffy payment conflicts with timeline.