YORK REGION POLICE joins powerful Metroland Group in Obstructing Electoral Process -Partap Dua

The Police have failed to initiate inquiry into dumping of 80,000-90,000 election flyers of Partap Dua by Markham Economist & Sun and Thornhill's The Liberal newspapers owned by a powerful monopoly Metroland Media Group. We are sitting almost 10 days after the occurrence of the crime on October 16.

I had filed a criminal complaint with on October 20, at around 11 PM immediately after the Box Grove Debate regarding dumping of my election flyers by Markham Economist & Sun and Thornhill’s The Liberal newspapers. I had given my flyers to them for distribution as inserts in all households of Markham and Thornhill, in their October 16 editions.

PC Elieff (Badge 1730) took the complaint after an embarrassing wait of almost 1 hour at the police station located on McCowan Road, north of Hwy 7. The complaint was acknowledged as occurrence # 14-300737. People who have experience with police know what it means to deal with York Region Police.

PC Elieff told me that a detective would contact in the morning.

No one has contacted me till October 25 regarding the most serious electoral crime. The same police would jump at destruction of one or two election signs of their chosen candidates. If this is not selective discrimination of candidates, what is?

As I had stated in my earlier release, the Returning Officer of Markham Elections, Ms Kitteringham, who also happens to be clerk of the city reporting to Mayor , showed inaction on my written complaint. The least she could have done is to ask (not necessarily order) the police to initiate an urgent investigation, if she believed in fair elections. If the Returning Officer herself does not believe in a fair electoral process, what can we expect from the police or private corporations like Metroland Media? The same newspapers, which are guilty of the crime, carry news of small infractions of election signs, yet they themselves are involved in serious election crimes.

The direct involvement of Metroland Group and its bosses has been proven beyond doubt by their inaction. I had asked Mr John Willems, General Manager of Metroland Group in writing, to partially mitigate my damage, by carrying my flyer as a print advertisement spread in their two publications on Thursday, October 23. Mr Willems did not do so, and the only reason was to help the sitting Mayor Frank Scarpitti because of advertising revenues they get from Markham ad York region, controlled by Mayor Scarpitti.

For those who do not know, I had given around 102,000 flyers to Markham Economist & Sun, and Thornhill Liberal newspapers for distribution as inserts in their October 16 newspapers. I had paid them $6,420 upfront and personally delivered two truckloads of 103 boxes at their respective warehouses at 175 Gordon Baker Road (32,363 flyers for Thornhill Liberal @ 5.4 cents per piece) and 250 Industrial Parkway North, Aurora (69,580 flyers for Markham Economist @ 5.4 cents per piece) respectively. The combined printing and distribution cost of flyers was around $15,000. These both newspapers engaged in a criminal conspiracy and deliberately did not distribute my flyers in Markham and Thornhill, and either dumped them or destroyed them. They selectively distributed flyers only ion some streets north of Hwy 7, and some in Box Grove and Thornhill. They left all of Markham, south of Hwy 7 from Markham Road to Woodbine and perhaps all of Thornhill because I did not get confirmation form whoever I spoke with in Thornhill.

When I did not receive the flyer in Markham Economist at my own home on 16th October, I called few others homes. They also had not received my flyers. I then called few election candidates living in different parts of Markham, and they also confirmed that they did not receive my flyers. I then called Ms Deanna Lu, the sales girl at Metroland Media Group, and she confirmed that she also did not get the flyer and all of houses where she lives, also did not get my flyers. She said that I should send her some postal codes and she would check. I sent her at least 10-12 postal codes in writing and gave her many by phone because they were too many as most of Markham was wiped out of distribution. Deanna Lu passed on the info to her bosses and I also wrote to her bosses Judy Starr and Anne Beswick but they did not take any action at all.

The only action taken by the Metroland Group was a phone call I received from their General Manager, John Willems, on October 20 around 10.45 AM (phone # 905-853-5379) asking to keep my mouth shut or else they would destroy me.

I had my apprehensions about this Metroland group because Bernie O Neil, the editor of Markham Economist is pro-establishment and has never provided adequate election coverage to me for reasons best known to him. I never thought that this monopoly could go so far as to be involved in a crime of such proportions.

The police could have easily traced where my two truckloads of 103 boxes weighing over 3,000 pounds went. It was the simplest investigation needed, and they could have easily traced the trail starting from warehouses in Aurora and Gordon Baker. The police had no intent to investigate a crime of this proportion, as they did not want to displease the Mayor of Markham and the future Chair of York region, Frank Scarpitti. We don’t know as of yet who all were involved in this biggest election crime of Canada (I have never heard any direct act of such proportions), but certainly there is some criminal conspiracy that has taken place.

IF THIS IS NOT OBSTRUCTION OF ELECTORAL PROCESS, THEN WHAT IS? AND WHERE DOES ONE GO WHEN POLICE, THE PUBLISHER AND RETURNING OFFICER ALL FAIL TO INVESTIGATE THE CRIME?

We thought elections were fair in Canada and such frauds things happened only in third world countries. Here it has happened in Markham, and the so-called defenders of law, THE POLICE, don’t care. Why? Would we citizens trust the police for anything?

In fact it calls for an investigation into the conduct of York Region Police, as to who directed the detective on case, not to act. The whole world is watching our electoral process. Is this what we want to show other nations about Canada?

I have been a strong critic of police conduct. It would not be out of place to mention here that once a York Region Police Officer stopped once me in early hours of morning (around 2AM or so) while returning from . The guy held me for almost 1.5 hours after he came to know who I was, and he conferred with his bosses all over during that time, to fabricate something I could not have defended. He issued me two tickets; one for speeding 40 over in a 60 km range and second for failing to signal while turning right from Hwy 7 on to Markham Road. Both were false, and the prosecutor dropped the charges in court without contest.