Shocking revelations at the committee hearings looking into Conservative Party election spending.

Thanks to Liberal MP Karen Redman, we learned two things:

• Other parties engaged in In-and-Out funding and are being investigated by Elections Canada
• The Liberals are sore at Conservative efficiency, and believe that is why the Conservatives need to be punished

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 1607 words, total size 11 kb.

Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand explained that one of the reasons the Conservatives are being targeted for investigation is that candidates and their agents weren't able to recall details of the advertising spending.

Well, that's why we write things down on things like receipts.  So we don't have to remember.

But that's not good enough for Marc Mayrand.

Marc Mayrand holds these people to a higher standard when it comes to remembering details like these. 

Amusingly, it is not a standard he seems to be able to meet.  In fact he misses the mark by a wide margin -- actually by nearly $20 million!

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 1107 words, total size 8 kb.

Seventeen boxes of sensitive Conservative material related to the In-and-Out affair being removed from Conservative Party headquarters by grim-looking Elections Canada officials.

The images from last April were quite powerful.

Would you like an update?  Well, for one thing, the boxes didn't leave the building, at least not until the relevancy of the seize material was determined.

And that determination was that over 85% of the material had nothing to do with the question of advertising financing in the 2006 election.  That material has been returned, but without a phalanx of cameras recording the march back into Conservative Party headquarters.

And the rest?  Virtually all of it was material Elections Canada already had.

Makes you wonder just what the point of all this was.  Just to put on a good show for the cameras?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:57 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 833 words, total size 6 kb.

The Globe and Mail is running a story on how Elections Canada tried to manage the story of the "raid" on Conservative Party headquarters.  But as an interesting side note, there is correspondence concerning the nature of legal privilege.

It seems to be far less strict than I thought, at least according to the General Counsel at Elections Canada.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 1218 words, total size 9 kb.

The latest data from Elections Canada regarding contracts has been disclosed today.  I've been looking forward to seeing it in order to determine if investigators Andre Thouin and Raymond Lamothe are actually working for Elections Canada.

And yet with data covering a period ending a mere nine days before the search warrant was signed off by Raymond Lamothe, I still can't find where he was rehired by Elections Canada after his initial contract ran out in March of 2007.  The same goes for fellow investigator Andre Thouin, who collected the evidence on April 15.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 810 words, total size 6 kb.

Until now, the debate on the significance over the apparent decision not to follow its own internal rules governing investigations and search warrants with regards to the Conservative Party In-and-Out issue has been limited to the blogosphere.  That changed yesterday when Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre raised the issue in the House of Commons.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 617 words, total size 5 kb.

I just discovered that I was scooped by just over a week on the question of whether the investigators who pursued a search warrant targeting Conservative Party headquarters had followed the rules in their own manual.

Glen McGregor of the Canwest News Service mentioned it briefly in a story printed on April 15.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:29 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 299 words, total size 3 kb.

With the range of contentious issues facing the work of Elections Canada, from allegations of differing standards for party filings to the draconian rules about publication of polling results to the free-speech limiting interpretation of advertising rules, I thought it might be interesting to see what election observers from other countries think about Elections Canada.

Judging from a report from a branch of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe called the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the attitude seems to be that Elections Canada is doing fine, but there ought to be some rules that need to be changed.  Rules to protect the rights of prisoners to vote, to allow foreigners to become involved in Canadian elections, and such -- but when it comes to restrictions on the free speech of Canadians, well, the less said the better.  Perhaps literally.

In general, the ODIHR is more concerned that Elections Canada doesn't have enough power, and that the ODIHR does not have enough access to provide oversight of Canadian elections.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 1655 words, total size 13 kb.

One of the more difficult things for many Canadians to accept is the notion that Elections Canada had singled out the Conservative Party for special treatment.  Let's be honest -- it does sound a bit paranoid.

The actual explanation is really very simple.  Ridiculously simple.  But unfortunately, it does not dispel the conspiracy theory entirely.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:25 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 817 words, total size 6 kb.

I try to eliminate some of the fog based on the speculation by asking some very simple questions.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 287 words, total size 3 kb.

Elections Canada investigators have a process by which they attempt to get documentation from people they suspect as having broken the law regarding elections.  Reviewing the warrant, I don't see any evidence that the process was followed with regards to officials at Conservative Party headquarters.  I wonder if that explains why officials drove all the way to Toronto to have a judge who specializes in commercial litigation sign a warrant dealing with electoral law.

What's wrong?  No specialists in electoral law sitting on the bench in Ottawa?

Maybe that's want they wanted to avoid.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 03:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 1066 words, total size 11 kb.

Helpfully, there is a manual that explains just how an Elections Canada investigator is supposed to do his job, including the level of non-cooperation that has to be reached before a search warrant is justified.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:56 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 1285 words, total size 10 kb.

A list of the major event moments in the In-and-Out story.  What's so remarkable is just how short the list is.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:18 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 313 words, total size 3 kb.

Unexpectedly, the question about Andre Thouin's exact job is turning out to be more interesting that I expected it would be.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:27 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 1179 words, total size 10 kb.

A minor detail, but you know Andre Thouin?   He's the Elections Canada official photographed carrying out that box of material from Conservative Party headquarters.  Here's the thing.  I can't find him in the staff list.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 935 words, total size 16 kb.

That picture of Andre Thouin of Elections Canada carrying out papers from the headquarters of the Conservative Party is quite striking.  But can it ever find its way into Liberal Party election material?

I doubt it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:25 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 173 words, total size 2 kb.

...the someone could be in a lot of trouble.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 372 words, total size 3 kb.

Do other parties engage in the same sort of funding practices as the Conservatives?  You look at the evidence and decide for yourself.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:59 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 186 words, total size 2 kb.

What exactly was the role of the RCMP officers who participated in yesterday's visit to Conservative Party headquarters?  Did the Mounties know what role they were to play, and who was setting the stage?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:49 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 487 words, total size 4 kb.

Big news from the capital is, of course, the so-called "raid" on Conservative Party headquarters by the RCMP.

OK, call me old school, but it ain't a raid unless someone is rappelling down the side of the building.

But it is interesting even if it isn't much of a raid.

Elections Canada is looking for something.

Evidence?

Payback?

Revenge?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:43 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 703 words, total size 5 kb.