Guelph Liberals fined $4,900 for breaking robocall rules

The federal Liberal riding association in Guelph, Ont., has been slapped with a $4,900 fine for robocalls that broke the rules during last year’s election campaign.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says a recorded message that went out to voters on April 30, 2011, violated telemarketing rules by failing to state that it came from the Liberal party or MP Frank Valeriote’s campaign.

“The violations involved a pre-recorded message sent by the association that failed to identify on whose behalf the call was made; provide necessary call-back information; and display the originating telephone number or an alternate number where the originator could be reached,” the CRTC said Friday.

The message warned against Conservative candidate Marty Burke’s views on abortion and encouraged people to vote against him.

Valeriote won the contest by a comfortable margin.

The Guelph MP said he accepts the CRTC’s findings and apologizes for breaking the rules.

“We were unaware of certain requirements and inadvertently neglected to include some identifying features in the message, such as a phone number and address,” Valeriote said in a statement.

“When I first learned of the errors in the call earlier this year, I was fully and immediately co-operative with the CRTC; I take full responsibility and apologize for the infringement.”

Both the riding association and Valeriote have agreed to put into a place a compliance program to ensure they don’t again run afoul of the rules, the regulator said.

“We appreciate that Mr. Valeriote and the association fully co-operated with our investigation and committed to comply with the rules in future campaigns,” CRTC chief compliance and enforcement officer Andrea Rosen said in a statement.

“We expect political party associations and candidates who are running for office to put appropriate safeguards in place to ensure compliance with the rules.”

Allegations of fraudulent and misleading phone calls designed to suppress the vote of targeted constituents during the May 2, 2011, election are currently being investigated by Elections Canada.

The investigation has centred on Guelph, where a number of residents say they received automated phone calls from someone claiming to be from Elections Canada and directing them to a wrong or non-existent polling station.

While the misleading phone calls appeared to target non-Conservative voters, the Conservative party insists it had no involvement in any such scheme and says it is assisting the investigation.

The CRTC fine pertains only to a breach of telemarketing rules and not to any possible violation of the Canada Elections Act.

Valeriote called the incident “an important learning experience.”

“Consequently, I have volunteered to do whatever I can to assist the CRTC to educate MPs, candidates and their staff to the full extent of regulations governing calls and the use of auto-dialers,” Valeriote said.

“It is important for these types of investigations to take place regularly to ensure that Canadians are aware of our rules and that they are respected.”