Elections Canada investigators detail deceptive and rude phone calls

Rude calls, calls in the middle of the night, swearing and even a mysterious message from North Dakota are among the robocall stories collected from 56 ridings by Elections Canada investigators.

The details of the calls were included in documents filed in Federal Court this week as part of a continuing investigation into misleading calls made during the 2011 federal election.

The calls were both recorded and live.

Sometimes the caller claimed to be from Elections Canada or from one of the parties and would direct the voter to an erroneous or non-existent polling station.

The investigators want major phone companies, including Shaw, Rogers and Videotron, to turn over details of who was calling their customers – sometimes in the middle of the night.

Many complainants said they received harassing calls from individuals claiming to be from the Liberal party, although the party says they never placed them.