Court records say robocall complaints doubled to 1,394 ‘specific occurrences’

OTTAWA – Court documents filed by the Commissioner of Canada Elections show the number of complaints about misleading telephone calls in last year’s federal election has almost doubled.

By mid August, Elections Canada had received 1,394 complaints “alleging specific occurrences” in 234 of Canada’s 308 federal ridings, according to a submission to the Federal Court.

That’s up from about 700 complaints that the commissioner’s office reported in March.

Allegations of fraudulent and misleading phone calls designed to suppress the vote of targeted constituents during the May 2, 2011, election are currently being investigated by the commissioner’s office.

The investigation has centred on Guelph, Ont., where a number of residents say they received automated phone calls from someone claiming to be from Elections Canada and directing them to the wrong or non-existent polling station.

While the misleading phone calls appeared to target non-Conservative voters, the Conservative party insists it had no involvement in any such scheme and says it is assisting the investigation.