3 octobre 2018 – Telegraph Journal

Pam’s back: NB Proud highlights democratic vulnerability, expert says

TOM BATEMAN TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

A text from ‘Proudly New Brunswick,’ and the New Brunswick Proud page in the background. PHOTO: TOM BATEMAN/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

You can tell Pam to stop, and she will, but the very fact she’s texting you has exposed “a wicked problem” for elections officials, a Fredericton-based security expert said Tuesday.

Heidi McKillop, the woman behind the “Pam from Proudly New Brunswick” text messages that lit up cellphones with the 506 area code in the days before the provincial election and then again early this week, said responding with “stop” to the messages will take you off their contact list.

“If they say stop, we stop,” said Mc-Killop, a Harvey Station, N.B., native who works in Alberta and founded the New Brunswick Proud Facebook page.

Registered with Elections New Brunswick as “Proudly New Brunswick / Fièrement Nouveau-Brunswick,” New Brunswick Proud shot to prominence in the days before last month’s provincial election when New Brunswickers began getting robocalls from “Martin calling from New Brunswick Proud,” who asked about political preference and texts from “Pam” discussing ending the carbon tax and asking if the recipient will vote.

“The biggest question, the one that really ekes at me, is where is the money coming from for this? And to what end and for what purpose?” said David Shipley, founder and CEO of Beauceron Security.

McKillop said Tuesday she hires a “vendor” who has lists of phone numbers to target with the messaging.

“It’s not illegal, it’s certainly not unconventional to have access to people’s private numbers, and this isn’t any different,” she said. 3 octobre 2018 – Telegraph Journal

McKillop, who is also working on an independent documentary called ‘Patriot Love’ about the Canadian oil and gas sector, declined to say who the vendor is, how much the service costs, or who is funding New Brunswick Proud.

Such questions “take away from our campaign,” McKillop said.

“It’s not abnormal to go about this, this way. The campaign is not about those people [who fund New Brunswick Proud], it’s about us and about involving New Brunswick and realizing we need to have a government that’s pro-economic, that’s for the people, that’s building jobs. That’s what matters.”

New Brunswick Proud is unaffiliated with any political parties, she said.

The most recent text asked “Do you think Gallant should be allowed to remain Premier even though he lost the election?”

Political experts like Donald Savoie, a Université de Moncton professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance, have repeatedly said Premier Brian Gallant has the right to quickly reconvene the legislature and test the confidence of the house.

“We care about what people are thinking, we care about the people that are in agreement with us that it shouldn’t’ be first-come, first-serve,” McKillop said. “We are trying to get people engaged and I think the question reflects that.“

‘The future of the modern political campaigns’

The St. Thomas University social work graduate started the page with the counsel of former federal Conservative Party staffer Jeff Ballingall, the founder of Proud - a registered non-profit that played a similar role in that province’s election.

Ontario Proud, which claims to be the “largest digital advocacy group in Ontario politics”, boasts on its site it used issues like “affordable hydro and ending political corruption” to “put sustained pressure on ,” the incumbent Liberal premier who eventually lost the election.

“We certainly reflect a lot of what they have done,” McKillop said, calling Ballingall “really inspirational.” 3 octobre 2018 – Telegraph Journal

Ontario Proud sent similar texts to Mc-Killop’s, but the two groups are distinct.

Ryan O’Connor, the lawyer and a director of the Ontario Proud board, said everything Ontario Proud does is compliant with CRTC legislation, relevant privacy statutes and elections financing laws.

“Because attempting to identify for whom someone is voting is not a commercial electronic message, the [federal] anti-spam legislation is not applicable,” O’Connor said.

The lawyer said people put off or alarmed by the texts should get ready for more.

“People are used to seeing political campaigns play out on the six o’clock news and in TV ads. The future of the modern political campaigns isn’t going to be fought in those forums anymore ... political discourse is changing,” he said.

All political messaging is vetted for being true and fair comment at Ontario Proud, which will soon disclose its financial information to the government of Ontario, he said.

“We knew there would be sceptics, given our political orientation. From the outset we were extremely concerned, we were careful to follow the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law,” he said.

The day after the first New Brunswick Proud texts and calls went out, Paul Harpelle said Elections New Brunswick was investigating the group over a discrepancy in their officially registered name.

But on Tuesday, he said New Brunswick Proud “were in fact registered as a Third Party, and as far as we can determine did not violate Election Act rules regarding advertising restrictions.”

‘A wicked problem’ for Elections NB

Shipley, the security expert, said the texts show a “giant, gaping, 18-wheeler-sized gap” in Canada’s anti-spam legislation.

“It’s a wicked problem: it’s complex, it’s nuanced, it’s multi-stakeholder and it is catching us fully unprepared,” he said. 3 octobre 2018 – Telegraph Journal

Elections New Brunswick, despite being progressive with campaigns combating problems like fake news, is limited in its ability to regulate groups like New Brunswick Proud. For example, it’s only after spending $500 that a group has to register as a third party carrying out political messaging.

“If you’re being very precise in targeting specific ridings … $500 can make a hell of a difference,” Shipley said, referring to several close races in the recent election campaign.

Two seats were decided by less than a dozen votes.

During a snap election, it wouldn’t be hard to use a pre-built phone list to tell certain voters about a wrong polling day or location.

“We are at a point now with incredible close elections, and anybody has the ability to tip the scales,” Shipley said.

Shipley said the solution is “people-based,” and will include legislative changes, better education and stronger journalistic resources to combat.

“There is no technological silver bullet here,” he said.