'Shorts' McDummie!

Good Day Readers:

Mr. Martin's actions are incomprehensible. Here's why. He could have used his parliamentary privilege to make allegations against RackNine Incorporated until he was blue in the face or the cows returned home whichever came first. Instead he chose to do it where he could be sued.

Edmonton-based Parlee McLaws sent him a defamation warning letter dated February 24, 2012 at which point he should have fallen on his knees (the sooner the better) and apologized all over himself to mitigate possible future damages especially if he has a weak case which, in our view, he does. But no. So what does he do? From a story in The Canadian Press also carried by The Globe and Mail entitled, More ridings were hit by alleged voter suppression: opposition (February 26, 2012):


Meanwhile, lawyers for RackNine Inc., an Edmonton-based automated dialling company that worked on the Conservative campaign, has sent a letter to Mr. Martin demanding an apology or face a defamation suit for comments he made about the company.


Mr. Martin says he has no intention of apologizing.


Et voila!

Check out Remedy sought Paragarph 33 at Page 9 where a cool $5 million plus punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the court are requested.

Lest we not forget a second defamation notice letter dated February 27, 2012 sent to a Patrick Martin related to comments he said February 26, 2012 on CTV's national affairs program, Question Period.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

Filed Statement of Claim - Action No. 1203 03498 (3!2!12) (E6148218)

Alberta firm at centre of robo-call probe sues bombastic NDP MP

Daniel Leblanc
Friday, March 2, 2012

NDP MP Pat Martin speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on March 1, 2012. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)

NDP MP Pat Martin has been sued for defamation by an Alberta robo-caller that was hired to transmit misleading polling information to voters in Guelph during the last election.

RackNine Inc. filed a statement of claim in Edmonton Friday alleging that it has fully collaborated with the ongoing Elections Canada investigation into the matter and has not engaged in any irregularities. RackNine was used to send out robo-calls in the Ontario riding last year, but the company said any wrongdoing was the work of the unidentified political operative who created an account with the firm and paid for the calls to be sent out.

More related to this story

• Sloppy work by ‘Pierre Poutine’ leaves lengthy trail for robo-call sleuth
• Elections Canada faces 31,000 complaints in robo-call probe
• ‘Absolutely, definitely’ no Tory role in robo-calls, Harper insists 

Mr. Martin attacked the company in a number of public appearances, pointing to its ties with right-wing political parties and linking it to the illicit activities. In its statement of claim, RackNine quotes extensively from recent statements made by Mr. Martin, who has been his party’s point-man on the robo-call controversy.

On February 23, Mr. Martin compared RackNine to Groupaction Marketing Inc., a company whose president has been convicted of fraud in relation to the sponsorship scandal that hurt the Liberal Party in the 2000s.

“I predict that RackNine will become the Conservative Party’s Groupaction, and I predict that we will find that the sheer magnitude and audacity of the ‘RackNine rascals’ will be enough to make Richard Nixon blush,” Mr. Martin said at a news conference.

RackNine alleged in its statement of claim that Mr. Martin’s comments “carried the innuendo that [the firm] had committed criminal activity, fraudulent activity, participated in a conspiracy, intimidation, sabotage and/or deceit.”

On Friday, Mr. Martin said RackNine is acting too quickly, without giving him the opportunity to respond to its recent request for an apology.

“Seems a bit premature to file before you've even had a response from the person you're demanding an apology from,” Mr. Martin said in an email. “I guess its standard libel chill, slap suit stuff. Silence your critics with your chequebook.”

In a recent statement, RackNine president Matt Meier insisted his firm has collaborated with Elections Canada from the start and has done nothing wrong, comparing itself to a car-rental company whose vehicle was misused by one of its clients.

“RackNine is a non-partisan firm, free from any party affiliation, bias, or designation. We couldn’t possibly have known that the fake calls were made using our services,” Mr. Meier said in the statement. “RackNine does not monitor outgoing calls made by customers through the automated service, we just provide the software and hardware platforms.”

Elections Canada has determined that someone hiding under the alias of “Pierre Poutine” used a disposable cellphone to create a RackNine account in the days leading to the May 2 election. The account was then used to call thousands of voters in Guelph to direct them to the wrong polling station.

More related to this story

• We want to hear from you: Did you receive an election-day robo-call?
• Liberals build their case in robo-call scandal as Tory attack backfires
• Tories lose control of agenda as they try to ride out robo-call storm
• Robo-calls worse than Watergate, dirty-tricks op opines
• Exactly how dangerous is Stephen Harper?
• Readers speak out on robo-calls: ‘It definitely changed my vote’