The Federal Court has allowed last-minute evidence containing complaints of fraudulent telephone calls in 56 electoral districts during the 2011 federal election.
The complaints will be filed as possible evidence in a bid by voters in six ridings to have those results overturned. Vancouver Island North, represented by Conservative MP John Duncan, is among the six ridings being contested.
The evidence, consisting of sworn court affidavits from two Elections Canada investigators who probed complaints following a nationwide controversy over alleged voter-suppression tactics last February, were filed in Federal Court on Friday.
Affidavits consist of information sworn out by investigators to obtain telephone call records from voters who reported robocalls or live telephone calls attempting to mislead them about the location of their polling stations during the election.
"It is increasingly apparent that this is a political activist campaign masquerading as a lawsuit — a left-wing group is seeking to overturn democratic elections because it doesn't like how people voted," said Jan O'Driscoll, a spokesman for Duncan.
The Federal Court case was to begin Monday.
Eight voters, with legal costs supported by the Council of Canadians, challenged election results for their ridings, all won by Conservative candidates.
Elections Canada appealed to the public last spring following a news report about alleged fraud in Guelph, Ont. An Elections Canada investigation in that case continues. Affidavits to be filed in court related to several hundred complaints that surfaced in 56 ridings from B.C. to Quebec.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com