Lawyer challenging election results defends key piece of robocalls evidence
December 17, 2012 - 8:00 AM
OTTAWA - The lawyer for eight Canadians trying to overturn the election wins of six Conservative MPs is making his closing arguments today in the robocalls court challenge.
Lawyer Steven Shrybman is responding to criticisms of a central pillar of evidence in his case — a poll that suggests a widespread dirty-tricks campaign targeted at non-Conservative voters.
Lawyers for the Conservative MPs have sought to undermine the Ekos Reaearch survey and the pollster behind it, Frank Graves.
Shrybman says the criticisms are largely based on the conclusions of another expert who provided evidence to the Conservative legal team.
The Council of Canadians, a political advocacy group, is paying the legal fees of the eight applicants in the robocalls court challenge.
They allege that misleading and harassing phone calls during last year's federal campaign kept some people from voting and may have affected the results.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012