Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Robocalls subject of rally

Protesters are expected to take to Grand Parade in Halifax today to call for a public inquiry into the robocall election fraud scandal.

The demonstration, one of several to be held across the country, gets underway in Halifax at 1 p.m., with several speakers including Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie. Other rallies will be held in at least 28 other cities, including St. John’s, Toronto, Calgary and Victoria.

"Elections Canada is investigating, RCMP are investigating, political opposition parties are pressuring. . . . Lots of people are paying attention," Project Democracy spokesman Christopher Majka, one of the rally speakers, said Saturday.

"Our interests are to keep up the pressure and let the various authorities know that lots of Canadians are concerned about this and we want to see action."

The robocall scandal broke after Elections Canada began investigating an incident in Guelph, Ont., where during the May federal election voters were phoned and told to go to polls that didn’t exist.

Since then, Canadians in dozens of ridings have reported receiving a similar call, being telephoned at inconvenient hours or harassed by people supposedly calling on behalf of political parties.

Elections Canada is now investigating more than 31,000 reported robocalls, an unprecedented number of complaints, said Majka.

An online petition (bit.ly/ArUqLf) has so far gathered more than 42,000 messages calling for an inquiry.

Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author:  KELLY SHIERS

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