XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Sure looks like it.  And that's exactly what I predicted would happen.   
   'Counseled to not talk to Elections Canada' by the Harper government,   
   some of them HAD to try to save their own skins in this scandal.  I   
   wonder how close to the Prime Minister's office THIS scandal will be   
   tracked.   
   _________________________________________   
   CBC News Posted: Jan 15, 2014   
      
      
   Robocalls immunity deal struck with ex-Tory worker Andrew Prescott   
      
   Conservative deputy campaign manager Andrew Prescott immune from prosecution   
      
   A key player in the 2011 Guelph robocalls scandal is getting immunity   
   from prosecution in the Elections Canada investigation into misleading   
   calls in the last federal election, CBC News has learned.   
      
   Andrew Prescott was the Conservatives' deputy campaign manager in   
   Guelph, Ont., where supporters of other candidates complained they   
   received misleading phone calls directing them to the wrong polling station.   
      
   Prescott has a written guarantee "the Crown has no intention" of   
   charging him in connection with the misleading phone calls, according to   
   a source close to the case.   
      
   The calls were directed at non-Conservative Party supporters.   
      
   The agreement says the Crown is interested in Prescott as a witness and   
   not as an accused.  It was reached sometime in December.   
      
   Michael Sona, 25, is the only person charged in the robocalls scandal.   
   A former staffer to Conservative MP Rob Moore, he was candidate Marty   
   Burke's director of communications during the campaign.  Sona has   
   repeatedly denied any involvement and says his name was leaked to the   
   media by someone in the Conservative Party because of a previous scandal.   
      
   Sona was accused during the campaign of grabbing for a ballot box at the   
   University of Guelph, an action he denies.   
      
   Prescott's lawyer, Matthew Stanley, said he couldn't comment on whether   
   his client has an agreement with the Crown.   
      
      
   'Respect voters'   
      
   Prescott, who has made only rare public comments on the matter, said in   
   October 2012 that he appreciates the support of family and friends like   
   Sona "who know I was not involved."   
      
   "I respect the voters and democracy far too much to participate in any   
   disgusting dirty tricks like this," Prescott said in a written statement   
   more than a year ago.   
      
   Prescott's name has come up in some of the court filings made by   
   investigators from Elections Canada, although he has so far declined to   
   be interviewed by them.   
      
   Prescott, who was paid a $1,000 stipend for his work on the campaign,   
   including IT services, was the main contact with RackNine, the company   
   whose services were used to make the illicit calls.   
      
   All political parties use robocalls, or automated calls, to reach   
   voters.  Robocalls are regulated but not illegal.  The calls at the   
   heart of the investigation in Guelph were illegal because Elections   
   Canada believes they were meant to interfere with some voters' right to   
   cast their ballots.   
      
   Burke's campaign used RackNine to make legitimate robocalls through   
   Prescott's account.  The misleading calls were made using a separate   
   account, although Al Mathews, the Elections Canada investigator leading   
   the probe, has traced the two accounts to the same computer.   
      
   In one instance, Mathews alleges in an affidavit filed in court, the   
   account assigned to Prescott and the account used to make the misleading   
   calls both signed into RackNine in a single web session minutes apart.   
      
      
   Pierre Poutine used burner phone   
      
   Mathews says in the affidavit that he has an email showing Prescott sent   
   the campaign's RackNine contact information to Sona and campaign manager   
   Ken Morgan on April 30, 2011, one day before the mystery robocaller   
   programmed the misleading calls.   
      
   It's not clear why Prescott sent the information to Sona and Morgan —   
   there is no mention of an emailed request for the information in the   
   court documents.   
      
   Later on April 30, somebody using the pseudonym Pierre Jones set up a   
   RackNine account using a private phone number that company president   
   Matt Meier only provides to clients.   
      
   The mysterious caller also set up a PayPal account using prepaid, or   
   vanilla, credit cards, and bought a disposable, or burner, cellphone.   
   The cellphone account was set up under the name Pierre Poutine.   
      
   Despite Prescott's past work for the Conservative Party and an   
   appearance as a delegate at its convention, there seems to be no love   
   lost between him and the party.   
      
   His Twitter profile makes sly reference to Jenni Byrne, who ran the   
   party's 2011 election campaign and is now deputy chief of staff to Prime   
   Minister Stephen Harper.   
      
   While his username refers to his previous partisan allegiance,   
   Prescott's bio says, "Now Christian Independent, since I've been   
   politically Byrned."   
      
   Sona is scheduled to be in court June 2 for either a preliminary hearing   
   or, if he forgoes the preliminary hearing, a trial.   
      
   Croft Michaelson, the Crown assigned to Sona's case, said he won't   
   comment on cases before the courts.   
      
   Sona's lawyer wasn't immediately available to comment.   
      
      
   http://i.cbc.ca/1.2497919.1389822404!/fileImage/httpImage/image.   
   pg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/michael-sona-marty-burke-and-andrew-prescott.jpg   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)