A North Vancouver man who says he got a robocall trying to mislead him away from his polling station in the last federal election has filed a complaint with Elections Canada.
Bruno Bisaillon said he got a call on election day, with an automated message purporting to be from Elections Canada.
The call from a 450 Montreal area code told him his usual polling station in upper Lynn Valley had been moved to another address a considerable distance away on Marine Drive.
At the time, Bisaillon recalls thinking the call was strange and telling his wife, Theres something really weird going on.
After several unsuccessful attempts to get through to Elections Canada and confirm the change, Bisaillon said he decided to just drive up to the regular polling station on his voters card and found it open as usual.
It was then, I realized the phone call was a fraud, he said. At the time, however, I thought it was a legitimate error.
That was until last week, when reports surfaced of widespread robocalls in the federal riding of Guelph, directing voters away from their polling stations. I said that sounds very familiar, said Bisaillon. Thats exactly what happened to me.
After making the connection, Bisaillon wrote to Elections Canada, asking them to investigate.
He said he finds it shocking that anyone would try to interfere with his right to vote. Its appalling, he said. Im very disappointed about the entire political system right now.
Bisaillon said he doesnt know why he was targeted. He doesnt belong to any political party and hasnt for many years. As a 19-year-old student living in Quebec, he did once belong to the Bloc Québécois, however.
Bisaillon may not be the only person who received robocalls on the North Shore.
Taleeb Noormohamed, the North Vancouver Liberal candidate in the last federal election, said party members are now going back through all of their call logs to see if anyone else may have been targeted. Noormohamed said he recalls a few people telling party volunteers that they had received automated calls directing them away from polling stations or repeated calls late at night supposedly from the Liberal Party.
At the time Noormohamed said his campaign team didnt think much of it. Now, however, they are concerned the calls may have been part of an orchestrated attempt to thwart Liberal supporters.
Noormohamed added its unlikely the calls changed the course of the North Vancouver election, but could have made a difference nationally in several close ridings.
This week in the House of Commons, Opposition MPs accused the Conservative Party of being behind the calls, after it was revealed many originated from a call centre operated by RackNine, that also worked on several Conservative campaigns. Conservatives have denied any involvement.
North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton said he hasnt heard of any local robocalls, except the one reported by Bisaillon.
But he added, If something untoward happened in North Vancouver, Im concerned. Elections Canada should look at it and get to the bottom of it. Saxton said he ran a clean and honest local campaign, adding Conservatives had nothing to do with any misleading calls.
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