100 Mile House
South Cariboo businesses celebrated
3 MARCH 7, 2012
Ice show delights audience
Len Monical a man of many talents
27
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday March 11
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Local MP speaks out on her party’s use of robocallers Carole Rooney Free Press
Elections Canada is investigating “robocalls” (automated phone calls) that attempted to redirect voters away from polling stations in last spring’s federal election. While it previously declined to confirm investigations in accordance to its usual practices, Elections Canada changed its stance on March 2 after receiving more than 31,000 complaints last week about misleading robocalls and other phone calls. The flood of new complaints arose after it became public that Elections Canada was investigating calls to voters in Guelph, Ontario just before the 2011 election, instructing them to go to non-existent polls. Reports now indicate people in dozens of ridings received similar calls from both automated recordings and live callers claiming to work for political parties. Some were made at inappropriate hours and others were harassing in nature. Fingers are being pointed at the federal Conservative Party direct-
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ly because the robocalls came from a company that exclusively contracted to the Tories during the election campaign. Automated dialling service provider RackNine in Edmonton, Alberta has since confirmed its service was utilized to falsely advise voters that polling station locations had changed. Now, federal opposition parties are demanding a full investigation after it was recently revealed that RackNine did campaign calls for various Conservative candidates, including KamloopsThompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod. McLeod confirms her campaign paid RackNine for automatic calling services. However, the local MP says she recorded the message herself to seek volunteers in her riding, included her own campaign phone number and sent it only to those she believed were her supporters. “All parties use automatic calls, and there are a number of different companies that provide that service.” McLeod adds the method is “perfectly legitimate”, but it’s the related message that matters. She did receive some complaints, but explains those were only in regard to her use of a robocaller. “It wasn’t related to the message. It was related to ‘don’t use automatic calls, See McLeod… page 4
Chris Nickless photo
Community volunteer Eleanor Nicoll, left, was presented with the Citizen of the Year Award for 2011 by committee head Donna Barnett at the South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce gala awards dinner at the 100 Mile Community Hall on March 3.
Arts advocate is Citizen of the Year A longtime advocate and promoter of the arts in 100 Mile House, Eleanor Nicoll, has been named Citizen of the Year for 2011. Nicoll received the prestigious award at the 18th Annual South Cariboo Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) Business Excellence Awards gala dinner at the 100 Mile Community Hall, March 3. More than 50 individual nominations were submitted for Nicoll under the award criteria of outstanding contributions of time and energy for the betterment of the South Cariboo community. Nicoll says she was
“shocked, surprised and totally honoured” to have won the award, particularly after hearing about the efforts of all the other nominees on stage with her. “My goodness me, everybody has been working so hard. Two of the couples, especially, had done so much that I really didn’t expect to be the one chosen.” Among her many local achievements, she had 30 years of direct involvement with the 100 Mile Festival of the Arts, and was its president for five years until she stepped back last June. One of the many community members who
nominated this exemplary citizen was local musician Anthony Lau who says he did so because of her significant efforts, hard work and involvement with many arts-related activities. He adds Nicoll is also a “nice and kind-hearted lady.” “She is well-deserving to get that award because she is a very humble person, sincere and dedicated to her work.” Despite her numerous contributions to the arts community, SCCC president Vern Peever says he’s never seen anyone so genuinely stunned to win. He says Nicoll clearly
has a lot of respect for the other well-deserving other nominees on the stage with her, and was visibly awed by the honour. As a flute teacher and player, she performed at many local events and taught at the festival, where she frequently played as a student’s ensemble partner. She served on the executive of the 100 Mile & District Arts Council for 10 years, and volunteers at the annual Winter Arts and Crafts Fair, and weekly at Parkside Art Gallery since 2005. See AWARDS… page 6