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Documents show Elections Canada is not investigating robocalls outside Guelph

Allegations are widespread, but investigation into the robocalls scandal is narrower

Court documents made public Monday show investigators at Elections Canada are not investigating the robocalls affair nationally, the National Post reports. Although spokespersons from Elections Canada have told the public that they are making a full investigation into reports of fraudulent and deceptive calls across Canada during the 2011 election, they have not sought phone or Internet records for any calls beyond Guelph, Ont.

While Guelph has been the epicenter of news from the robocalls scandal, Elections Canada has received complaints from over 200 ridings across the country. The documents give no indication of any investigation beyond the hunt for the “Pierre Poutine” suspect behind fraudulent robocalls made to non-Conservative voters in Guelph in 2011.

Elections Canada has reported that it received 1,394 complaints about alleged misleading robocalls in 234 ridings. Voters in seven ridings are to have election results overturned. In Nipissing-Timiskaming, where Conservative Jay Aspin defeated Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota by 18 votes, a call centre worker signed an affidavit which said that she was instructed to give people polling station locations that she came to believe were false.

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