I believe in the democratic process so I am posting the Story from Whitby This Week. And since Rob Ford never smoked Crack, oh wait he just admitted he did, I will let the readers decide for themselves.
Whitby This Week
ByParvaneh Pessian
WHITBY -- Centre Ward Councillor Michael Emm is denying any connection to websites containing offensive statements that his opponent in the last Whitby election claims was registered under his name.
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Former Whitby councillor’s...
Former councillor Shirley Scott says her websites,
www.shirleyscott.com and
www.voteshirleyscott.ca, were “hijacked” and derogatory comments under her name were posted there during the 2010 election. Ms. Scott obtained a police report on the investigation into the websites through a Freedom of Information request, which indicated the site domain name was owned by “the election opponent to SCOTT and winner of the election.”
“I’m stunned that the police would do an investigation without contacting me or my family,” says Coun. Emm, adding the first he heard of the matter was through a media request for interview on Oct. 31.
Following the advice of legal counsel, Coun. Emm says he decided not to comment at the time and instead do some poking around of his own. According to his findings, one of the websites is up for sale and the other is registered to a place in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I’ve had some discussions with some techie people and they said that in this day of Internet, it’s very easy to go and get a web page and register it in someone else’s name,” Coun. Emm says.
“That’s the way the Internet works these days -- it’s who can mess around with who.”
According to Ms. Scott, she got a phone call in September 2010 -- just one month before the election -- notifying her that something was amiss on the websites she had used in her previous bid for a seat in 2006.
The site, which was purchased in March 2010 according to the police report, contained some “political stuff which is normal in elections.” But it also contained a section where the writer blathered about other councillors, including references to one’s children burning down a barn and another having a “past in dirty movies,” among other references.
“I remember thinking how could anybody stoop that low?” says Ms. Scott, upon learning about the disparaging remarks written under her name.
Dealing with the hurtful attack on her character, combined with the death of her campaign manager and close friend, dampened her spirits during the tight race.
Ms. Scott lost the 2010 election by 323 votes.
“The heart went right out of me about three weeks before the campaign ended,” she says. “I found it hard to do anything because I was intimidated ... whomever did it, got exactly what they wanted.”
In the police report, the owner of the site’s name is redacted but the phrase referring to the owner as Ms. Scott’s opponent and winner of the election is not. The case wrapped up this past January when police and an assistant Crown attorney determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute.
It is not known who purchased the websites after Ms. Scott failed to renew her rights to the domain names, or who actually posted the content online.
There also wasn’t enough proof that the writings went beyond “nasty election campaigning and entered the criminal fraud world,” according to the report.
Coun. Emm, who had not spoken to police regarding the report as of Monday, says he also fell prey to trickery during the 2010 election when his home computer was hacked into.
“People do hide behind the Internet,” he says. “Years ago when my dad (former Whitby Councillor Gerry Emm) wanted to have a good row with somebody, they’d pick up the phone and they’d duel it out ... in this day and age, somebody can send you a factitious e-mail.
It’s all too weird.”
He believes the perpetrator of the incident involving Ms. Scott’s sites could be linked to another website, www.therealwhitbytowncrier.blogspot.ca, which contains a photo of him and is written in the first person referring to himself as “evil” and confessing to using slanderous statements against his election opponents.
“I feel for what Shirley’s going through because since 2010, there’s been this website about me out there ... that’s sitting on the World Wide Web since 2010 and I choose to ignore it,” he says.
Besides a phone call Coun. Emm says he placed to Ms. Scott in 2010 “to give her the courtesy” of knowing he was going to enter his name in the race, he says the two have barely spoken.
“If Shirley would like to speak to me, I have no problem speaking with Shirley but she goes out of her way not to speak to me.”
Ms. Scott says she’s not interested in confronting Coun. Emm and hasn’t yet decided if she wants to run in the next municipal election, scheduled for October 2014, but wanted to make the findings of the police report public to clear her name.
“All I knew in my heart was I want to know who did this so I can prove to the community that this was not me,” she says.
She encourages Coun. Emm to set the record straight as well by speaking to the owner of the domain, the U.S.-based GoDaddy, and determining who is responsible for the cruel deed.
“As the registered person of the site, you are privy to all the financial information ... there’s either a credit card or a PayPal probably so to clear his name, that’s all he has to do.”
--
With files from Torstar news service
Reporter Parvaneh Pessian covers the town of Whitby for Metroland Media Group’s Durham Region Division
There are people out there that have pictures or were privy to these pictures before all the shenanigans began in the 2010 municipal elections on both web sites and facebook, including attacks on the Mayors opponent that should step up to the plate as this could put this dinosaur to bed. This person knows who he is and should come forward.
905-666-6373 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting, email
