Nick’s e-mail to groups that have an interest in the robo-calling scandal:

Toronto, March 6 2012

Jamie Biggar, Leadnow
Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians
Duff Conacher, Democracy Watch
Ken Lewenza Jr., Fire the Liars
Wayne Smith, Fair Vote

Dear Friends,

I am writing to suggest that your organizations, as well as a handful of others, assess the seriousness and potential for positive change because of the robo-calling scandal. In my opinion, there appears to be no consensus among public interest groups as to whether this crisis is an opportunity for the progressive movement to make substantial gains to:

• slow down Stephen Harper’s dismantling of Canada;
• determine whether a serious effort should be made to demand by-elections in a number of ridings; and 
• try to make the issue have “legs” so it can be used against the Conservatives in 2015. 

Most of you know very little about me, and may wonder why I have the “license” to write such a letter: 

Following 20 years as a reporter/producer/senior editor with the CBC, I worked with media and human rights organizations in more than 20 under-developed countries developing strategies and carrying out campaigns pressuring authoritarian regimes to introduce media laws as well as stop illegally imprisoning, beating and killing local media workers. Working under very difficult conditions, I learned a lot about strategy and campaigning. In addition, last year Gary Shaul and I were the two main people behind the Catch 22 Harper Conservatives campaign. I now have a blog and occasionally travel to underdeveloped countries to assist media workers with various projects.

I think there are tens-of-thousands of progressive types in the country who do not know how significant the robo-calling issue could be in bringing improvements to the political environment in Canada if it were played right by a committee or network of leading groups. However, the robo-calling story is quickly shifting to the inside pages of right-wing newspapers owned by strongly pro-Harper corporations. 

Some of you are trying to keep the story before the public but, frankly, individually you don’t have the power to demand that the mainstream media carry “the other side” of the story. Moreover, no clear message is getting through to either the progressive community or the general public about the significance of the scandal. Are you losing a huge opportunity?

I would like to suggest that your organizations, as well as any others you wish to draw in, work together to get on top of this situation. Here are a few points – I’m sure you are already aware of them – that I want to urge you to move on:

1. Try to reach a consensus as to whether the robo-calling scandal could be a “game changer” if exploited properly by our community.
2. If you feel the issue has potential, put a process in place to determine a plan of action that will include strategies that have anticipated outcomes. By the way, instead of being an effective tool, I feel that a march of 200 or 300 people helps the Conservatives more than it helps our cause.
3. Evaluate the complaints the Council has received and hopefully start to determine how difficult it would be for individuals or groups of individuals to take their case to the Judiciary. If this is a “go”, is there perhaps one organization or a group of organizations that will begin to oversee this process – seeking out people in the most likely ridings, finding people with leadership qualities to head the Judicial push? My opinion is that a successful by-election push would be the most significant outcome of this whole affair. 
4. Is Elections Canada capable of – and likely to – doing a good job on investigating and producing information on particular ridings. From the little bit of research I have done, I would say no – even thought I said in my blog that they should be FORCED to do their job:  If all of this is a go, it seems to me that Elections Canada needs to be monitored and prodded – with news releases issued if they are too slow or not doing their job.  Does Elections Canada have all the powers it needs. My impression is no. Should this be pointed out in a joint news release?
5. What should be the role of the RCMP in all of this? Should they/do they have a task force looking into whether charges should be paid, or should they/are they waiting for Elections Canada? For political reasons I won’t go into, I can easily imagine the RCMP dragging its butt on this.
6. Should there be a public inquiry? Personally, I don’t know enough to even guess. If you decide this scandal needs to be pursued, it would be good if you folks could reach a consensus on this. 
7. If this is a “big deal” that needs to be worked on in a big way, it represents a huge amount of work. Maybe some groups could assign a person – or part of a person – to work on this for a few weeks. Do not overlook the contribution labour could make – a weakness of the progressive movement. 
8. Communications: 

• Find an interesting piece of news re the scandal and announce the formation of the group at the same time. 
• Call up news/current affairs programs, tell them about the coalition, and see if they will have you on. Programs always need guests, and if you can present reasons for going after this stuff, they will have you on. 
• Issue news releases clarifying some of the things I asked about above. Send them to the mainstream media and, just as important, use all of your email lists and websites to clarify things and increase the knowledge about this issue among people who care. 
• Respond to articles and the odd letter that play down this whole thing. 
• Perhaps one of the partner groups can provide a part of its website so that articles and statements can be shown there.

I think you folks needed a push on this matter, so these are my suggestions. If you folks feel this is very important, I know the resources exist to do the job properly. (If you like, I’m sure you can work in a little fundraising as part of this. lol!)

If anyone suggests that – if I’m so smart, why don’t I take this on, I have a great excuse to say no thanks.  Next week I leave for St. Lucia where I will be working with journalists for a month.
At some point I would appreciate hearing from you – perhaps even collectively, saying you are going to do some of these things.

Regards,

Nick Fillmore