Robocall court action includes Sask. riding - Action News
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Saskatchewan

Robocall court action includes Sask. riding

The Saskatchewan riding of Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar is now caught up in the ongoing controversy concerning allegations of improper telephone calls, dubbed robocalls, made on election day.

The Saskatchewan riding of Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar is now caught up in the ongoing controversy concerning allegations of improper telephone calls, dubbed robocalls, made on election day.

The Council of Canadians has gone to court, asserting that an automated machine may have misdirected a voter to cast a ballot at the incorrect location.

The court documents cite one person's experience and recollections from May 2, 2011voting day.

"The applicant received a pre-recorded telephone call," the document claims. "The caller told the applicant that her polling station had changed to a different location. The applicant hung up the phone part way through this call because she had already voted."

The applicant is identified in the court document as Kay Burkhart, who currently lives in Toronto.

The documents go on to quote news media items outlining the robocall scandal.

None of the assertions in the court document have been proven.

The organization, The Council of Canadians has been coordinating the court applications seeking tooverturn the results in seven ridings, including the Saskatchewan one.

In Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar, Conservative MP Kelly Block beat out the NDP's Nettie Wiebe in a tight race, winning by 538 votes.

Steven Shrybman is a lawyer for the council.

"We ultimately don't care who may have been behind the dirty tricks," Shrybman told CBC News Tuesday. "What we care about is the impact those dirty tricks have had, or may have had on the result of the election."

CBC News contacted Block's campaign office and was told it was not involved in any inappropriate calls.

With files from CBC's Jill Smith