Here’s a follow-up article by the Globe & Mail’s Lawrence Martin on the trial of Conservative staffer Michael “the Brain” Sona for allegedly orchestrating the robocalls scandal in the Guelph riding during the federal election in 2011. Six Conservative loyalists have testified that Sona bragged to them after the election about arranging for misleading calls to be made to non-Conservative supporters about the location of their polling station with the intent of discouraging them from voting.
Sona has denied the charges against him and said he is being set up as the fall guy by the Conservatives for a vote-rigging scheme that went well beyond the Guelph riding. One tidbit that Martin reveals is that in the time-frame when Sona was supposedly bragging to one staffer about his ingenious scheme records show he was vacationing in Aruba. Martin also notes that Sona’s lack of fluency in French makes it unlikely he could have recorded a fake bilingual message from Elections Canada, and that Elections Canada has been handicapped in its investigation of the affair by the Conservatives refusal to grant access to party records.
