Posts Tagged ‘Responsive Marketing Group’

What happened in Thunder Bay?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 19, 2012 - 0 Comments

james.gregory/Flickr

As part of its challenge to the election results in seven ridings, the Council of Canadians has obtained (and now released) an affidavit from Annette Desgagne, a call centre worker with Responsive Marketing Group in Thunder Bay.

About 3 days before election day, the script changed in a manner that was noticeable to me. When a new script was being implemented, we would have to specifically log off and log back into the system. This time, the scripts we were to read to the listeners concerned changes to the locations of their polling stations. The new scripts we were to read did not identify that we were calling on behalf of the Conservative Party nor did we mention the local Conservative candidate…

I started to become concerned about the Change of Address Calls, because several listeners with whom I spoke, questioned me about the new polling location I was providing. For example, I recall one woman in Winnipeg telling me that the address I just gave her was over an hour away. I tried to problem solve this over the phone with her for a few minutes, but she was sure the new address was wrong. There was a phone number at the bottom of the screen in front of me that I was to give people if they had further questions. That lady said she had called that number but that it was not a correct number.

Elections Canada specifically asked all political parties to refrain from calling voters about changes to polling station locations. But Ms. Desgagne says she recalls calling voters in Nipissing-Timiskaming, where apparently no changes were made.

RMG says callers were scripted to identify themselves as calling from the party and that the calls weren’t specifically about changes to polling station locations. Continue…

  • And now a word from Pat Martin

    By Aaron Wherry - Monday, April 16, 2012 at 11:51 AM - 0 Comments

    Having previously clarified his remarks about Campaign Research and apologized for his statements about Responsive Marketing Group, Pat Martin convened reporters this morning to say sorry to RackNine.

    I apologize for any damage my statements may have caused to Mr. Meier personally or to RackNine, and I have been specifically authorized by the NDP Party to apologize on behalf of the NDP Party for any similar damage the publications on the NDP website may have caused.

  • Guelph and everything after

    By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

    Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor look at the investigation in Guelph.

    A production order executed on RackNine Inc. in Edmonton compelled the company to turn over all emails, billing records and other correspondence between it and “the Conservative party general election campaign in Guelph.” The court order also required the Conservative-connected company to hand over the user names, passwords and IP addresses of anyone associated with the Guelph campaign who used RackNine between March 26 and May 31.

    The order also required RackNine to release records of calls that used the number 450-760-7746. The Bell Canada phone number in Joliette, Que., appeared on call displays of some recipients of the fraudulent election day calls in Guelph. Sources close to the investigation have indicated the number was assigned to a disposable “burner” cellphone, purchased with cash and then used to call RackNine.

    The Citizen talks to Jean-Pierre Kingsley. The Star focuses on the Responsive Marketing Group.

  • ‘We’re sending people to the wrong place’

    By Aaron Wherry - Monday, February 27, 2012 at 8:53 AM - 0 Comments

    Tonda MacCharles finds a call centre in Thunder Bay that was employed by the Conservative party.

    Annette Desgagné, 46, said it became clear to her — after so many people complained that the “new” voting locations made no sense or were “way the hell across town” — that the live operators were, in fact, misdirecting voters. “We’re sending people to the wrong place,” Desgagné recalled telling her supervisor.

    She said she has no way of knowing whether in fact the poll station locations she gave listeners were wrong addresses or phony locations. But she said the “feedback” elicited by the script was so negative, “we started getting antsy.” She said she and a few other workers at the call centre were perplexed enough that they began telling the voters they should double-check their poll location with their local Elections Canada office, which was not part of the script. Desgagné, alone, said some workers shortened their script — although they weren’t supposed to — and said “… I’m calling from Elections Canada …”

    Susan Delacourt focuses on the script.

From Macleans