OTTAWA - A criminal investigation is not warranted into a complaint about phoney names on an online petition targeting Sun TV, police said Monday.
The decision by the Ottawa Police Service came after it reviewed the formal complaint by an international advocacy group that's opposing the proposed new right-wing, all-news channel.
Avaaz.org, a New York-based group run by a Canadian, complained to Ottawa police and the RCMP in September that someone had attempted to undermine its petition by submitting "fraudulent signatures" — including those of a number of actual parliamentary reporters and their real email addresses.
The RCMP left the assessment of the complaint up to Ottawa police.
"It was decided it was not going to be treated as a criminal offence," Ottawa Const. J.P. Vincelette told The Canadian Press.
The Avaaz online petition, which quickly gathered tens of thousands of names, including that of author Margaret Atwood, demanded that Sun TV not get any preferential treatment on its broadcast-licence application.
When Kory Teneycke — Quebecor's chief proponent for Sun TV — ridiculed some of the names on the petition as clearly phoney, Avaaz.org went to police noting the petition list was not publicly available and that all the fake names came from a single IP address in Ottawa.
Teneycke, who explained that the prankster responsible for the false names had tipped him off the same evening they were submitted, resigned from Quebecor the day after the Avaaz police complaint.
The company subsequently modified its application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommuncations Commission and is now seeking a standard Category 2 specialty-channel licence, without special conditions.
Ricken Patel, the Edmonton-born executive director of Avaaz, said Monday that adding fraudulent names to a petition is "a criminal act with real implications for online democratic expression in Canada."
The group, which hired Toronto criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby to pursue its complaint, said in an email that it was "puzzling that the RCMP ignored a pre-eminent criminal lawyer and chose not to investigate a criminal act that top executives at SunTV had insider knowledge of."
The organization is still examining its "legal options," Patel added, "and will continue to pursue justice and stand up for Canadians' right to freedom of expression."
Patel's reference to freedom of speech is sure to inflame supporters of the Sun TV bid, who complained bitterly that the Avaaz petition was designed to silence a new, right-wing voice in the Canadian news media.
Quebecor declined to comment on the police decision Monday.