Watchdog aims to wrap investigation into country-wide robocalls by spring

OTTAWA – The chief enforcer of Canada’s election laws hopes to conclude an investigation into misleading robocalls during the 2011 federal campaign by next spring.

Elections commissioner Yves Cote says in his first annual report that he’s aiming to finalize the investigation before March 31, 2014.

He also reveals that he’s been given additional resources to conduct investigations.

As of March of this year, Cote had hired seven additional non-permanent investigators and, for the current year, he’s been given additional resources to hire three permanent additional investigators and one paralegal.

One person — a junior staffer on the Conservative candidate’s campaign — has been charged in connection with automated calls in the Ontario riding of Guelph which misdirected voters to the wrong polling stations.

Cote says his office is dealing separately with thousands of complaints in more than 200 ridings across the country about automated or live calls, which either misdirected voters or appeared designed to annoy them into not voting at all.