Ottawa - Elections Canada said last week it cannot investigate political calls that are "annoying, repetitive or (of) a partisan nature" unless there are signs of intimidation or "false pretence," raising questions about how far the agency will go to probe the robocalls scandal.
The office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections, which is in charge of enforcing the Elections Act, wrote to former MP Joe Volpe's lawyer, Antonio Pascale, to say it was "concluding further inquiry" into mysterious harassment calls received by Volpe supporters during the last election.
Volpe's lawyer wrote to Elections Canada on April 15, 2011, to complain that for the previous 10 days constituents in the riding were receiving calls "from persons falsely identifying themselves as calling from the Joe Volpe campaign."
The email from Elections Canada suggests such calls are not forbidden by the act.
"The act does not prohibit or regulate the use of telephone solicitations for a particular candidate or party, or the content of a call unless actual intimidation or false pretence can be shown," the email said.
The harassing calls in the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence had a call display showing a North Dakota number often blamed for credit card scams. Calls from the same number have been reported in a number of other ridings across the country.
But the elections agency said the use of "spoofed" call display numbers "is not regulated by the Act.
