Warning: RMG Call Centre “Story” May be Manipulated
… in addition to the robocalled ones. I’m going to need a bigger list:
Callers on behalf of the federal Conservative Party were instructed in the days before last year’s election to read scripts telling voters that Elections Canada had changed their voting locations, say telephone operators who worked for a Thunder Bay-based call centre…
In a new twist on new growing allegations of political “dirty tricks,” three former employees of RMG — Responsive Marketing Group Inc.’s call centre in Thunder Bay — told the Star about the scripts.
Something is very seriously wrong with this story, however. The big news from the Star is that RMG call centre employees may account for some of the live-call misdirections which are on my list:
Desgagné… said some workers shortened their script — although they weren’t supposed to — and said “I’m calling from Elections Canada.”
Now, I’ve never been blessed with a job at a call centre, but I know enough people who have been that I have a rough idea how it works. Scripts may not exactly be holy writ, but they matter. So does the law. Deliberately sending people to the wrong polling station is a crime, but they can claim ignorance on that front. On the other hand, deliberately impersonating Elections Canada is a crime too.
The Star wants mo te believe, it seems, that multiple low-level telemarketers independently decided to impersonate Elections Canada by going off-script. Colour me skeptical. There is more to this than meets the eye.
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Holly Stick
I’m not sure about that “independently decided” objection you make. Wouldn’t the workers be apt to talk to each other about it, and maybe reach a consensus on changing what they said on the phones?
Susan Delacourt is focusing on the script, with reference to the process the Conservatives followed for the calls about Cotler.:
http://thestar.blogs.com/politics/2012/02/script.html
Sixth Estate
A conspiracy by call center staff to change a script given to their employer by a paying client sounds even less likely.
Holly Stick
A commenter at Macleans points out that RMG ilikely records each call; so maybe we should be demanding the actual recordings.
Holly Stick
National Post talked to other employees of the call centre (it suggests they were different from the ones the Star talked to, but I don’t know if anyone can be sure.)
They also say they started telling people to check with Elections Canada after they realized they were giving out false info; but do not mention anyone saying they were from Elections Canada (so far just the one named person in the Star has said that)
Also a bit about calling people who were expecting rides to the polls.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/27/i-made-misleading-election-calls-for-the-tories-call-centre-workers-speak-out/
Holly Stick
The woman who was named in the Star article, Annette Desgagne, was on The Current today. She says the script changed in the last week and the people they called kept saying the poll addresses the callers were giving were wrong. She would not confirm the exact wording they used, which is fair enough. Says she and her sister made calls including to RCMP who directed her to call Elections Canada.:
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/02/28/robo-calls-voters-misled-during-federal-election/
Sam Gunsch
@Sixth says “I’m going to need a bigger list…”
ok… I’ll bite…shark hunting…?
Tory jaws eating unwary citizens, opposition parties… & bloggers?