Blames Holland, files complaint with Elections Canada
Oct 08, 2008 - 02:18 PM
By Keith Gilligan
DURHAM -- A complaint has been filed with Elections Canada by Ajax-Pickering Conservative candidate Rick Johnson over postings on a website that were allegedly made from the House of Commons.
"The nature of the complaint is over the last 15 months, there's been a concerted negative campaign on electionprediction.org," said Mr. Johnson's campaign manager Tom Simpson.
A search of the IP (Internet protocol) addresses found postings came from House of Commons computers and Blackberrys, he said.
The postings, he said, began when Steven Gilchrist was the candidate and continued when Mr. Johnson was nominated after Mr. Gilchrist withdrew for business reasons.
"House of Commons computers have been used to denigrate Conservative candidates and to praise Mark. House of Commons computers can't be used for partisan purposes," Mr. Simpson said.
The complaint with Elections Canada states that Conservative candidates in the riding have been "the subject of anonymous postings that misrepresent and distort the facts in order to influence an elector to vote for Mark Holland, and to not vote for the Conservative candidate. All of the identified postings originated from House of Commons computers or Blackberrys."
A posting by JR reads, "The Conservatives had a parade of 10 cars - mostly SUVs and trucks - driving to each driveway, blocking people and making everyone they encountered generally annoyed. I only wish they would do it all over the riding. Driving around sitting on the back of pick-ups instead of walking to the next townhome is a real winning image."
"I find it very offensive," Mr. Simpson said. "There's a significant financial issue in terms of election financing. It's a breach of what people in parliament are to use equipment for.
"It's anything but trivial. It's deceptive, lacks transparency and there's a potential breach of the Elections Canada statutes," he said.
"No," Mr. Holland said when asked if the postings were sent from his Ottawa offices.
"It's not serious at all," he said of the postings. "Somebody made postings to a blog that aren't damaging at all. It's an expression of personal opinion.
"There are thousands of people who work in the House of Commons," Mr. Holland said. "There's nothing derogatory. There's no issues at all."
As for fighting the charge, Mr. Holland said, "There's no need to. It's not going anywhere."
He called filing the complaint a "stunt in an election campaign. I don't even know what basis they are trying to pursue it."
"Somewhere, someone, of the thousands of employees in the House of Commons, make personal opinions. I don't understand what the point is."
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