I couldn’t have engineered ‘massive’ robocalls scheme: former Tory staffer

OTTAWA – A former Conservative party staffer once named publicly in the robocalls scandal in Guelph, Ont., says the “entire, massive scheme” was much more co-ordinated than could have been done by a 22-year-old without data access.

In an extraordinary interview with CBC’s Power and Politics, Michael Sona says he’s not going to “take the fall” for something he didn’t do, accusing the party of cutting him adrift.

Sona, now 24, was publicly named by a Conservative-friendly media outlet as a key suspect in the vote suppression scheme in Guelph, which saw phoney Elections Canada calls aimed at misdirecting voters during the 2011 election campaign.

Similar calls were reported across the country and are under investigation by the Commissioner of Elections.

Sona says the Guelph campaign received a lot of direction from Conservative party headquarters in Ottawa and says the party should know who accessed its database to make the robocalls list.

While he maintains his innocence, Sona is shedding no light on which individuals might have been involved in the scheme, saying it’s up to Elections Canada to get to the bottom of the matter.