Today on the Scroll: writer under fire feels betrayed by NOW magazine over controversial electoral-fraud story; a recently reinstated CKLN host explains why volunteer FM radio was worth fighting for.

You probably don’t remember the 2004 federal election as more than the vote that sealed Paul Martin’s fate as a lame duck PM. James Di Fiore, however, hasn’t finished dealing with the consequences of securing three ballots that day.

It started with a piece he pitched to NOW magazine in 2004, headlined "How I Could Have Voted Three Times," inspired by a pamphlet Di Fiore was handed in Kensington Market that explained how no fixed address or ID card was required to place a vote. The visit to three polling stations in the Trinity-Spadina riding produced a quick hit of sensationalism, and he earned his first-ever freelance writing cheque for $250.

And then, nothing much happened. Di Fiore had a couple more pieces in NOW, albeit Love & Sex columns written under a pseudonym. He then took a job as a reporter in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, because Tommy Douglas hailed from there.

But when he spotted a Toronto Star letter in December 2005 by Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley refuting the claim that the elector lists were full of dead people, Di Fiore responded with the assertion that, in the previous election, he voted three times. The Star then mentioned this claim in a subsequent article.

And that’s when the private investigator hired by Elections Canada came calling.

Di Fiore soon relocated to Dundas, Ontario to work on business plans, and was subsequently served with papers, charged under the Canada Elections Act. He turned down what he considered “excessive” plea bargain terms in favour of a trial. NOW, however, weren’t interested in supporting Di Fiore when he got three hours in court in December. (The trial resumes on Feb. 11. Maximum penalty: $1,000 fine and up to three months in prison.)

NOW senior news editor Ellie Kirzner explained their position last month to the National Post. Their lawyers had no problem with the piece on the condition that Di Fiore did not actually cast the ballot, and claim he went on to discredit himself.

Kirzner said as much in federal court in December. Di Fiore was wondering if the judge was wondering why she wasn’t sitting at the defendant’s table beside him.

“For a magazine that uses provocative language as its mantra, I think it’s hypocritical for them to fault me for doing the same," says Di Fiore in a recent interview with Scrolling Eye. "I believe they’re just trying to save face by saying I lied.”

Di Fiore claims to have spoiled his ballot. But a spoiled vote still counts as a vote. So, he technically voted three times anyhow, even if he didn’t slide three pieces of paper through the box slot. The choice of words in the Star letter was “meant to be provocative,” he explains. “I had to rat myself out in order for them to realize there was a serious problem.”

“NOW is claiming that I was dishonest to their readers. But that’s because backing the kind of electoral reform I was advocating would mean supporting an issue that completely conflicts with their editorial stance.”

And, indeed, it was Conservative Party MPs who referred to Di Fiore’s efforts in making amendments to the Elections Act. Voters are expected to have proper identification, or be vouched for by another registered voter, making the system more potentially intimidating for demographics that NOW is fond of championing. (Kirzner was out of the office this week and could not be reached for comment.)
 
“I didn’t even know it was a right-wing issue, or how partisan it was,” says Di Fiore, “otherwise I’d probably not have been drawn to it.”

Jack Siegel, one of the only lawyers in the province practicing in the field of Election and Political Law, doesn’t quite see the partisan argument, though. Yet he also can’t understand why the kind of offense that would usually result in a quick wrist-slapping agreement has turned into a drawn-out process for Di Fiore.

“How far should a journalist go in trying to generate a story?” Siegel wonders. “Should it be considered a crime for somebody to try testing a law? And what consequences are fair and appropriate for doing that?”

Di Fiore, who now produces content for hip-hop startup rapspace.tv figures his first-ever assignment was a success, since the Trinity-Spadina riding was a focal point for investigations of alleged voter fraud, with fingers often pointing at beloved NDP MP Olivia Chow.

“If you pass by a jewelry store without glass in the window, and there’s a diamond ring sitting there, people will take it,” Di Fiore offers. “Put the glass there, and you’ve solved the problem.

“In this case, the only people who would do the taking are the politicians.”


AXIS OF EVIL RADIO RETURNS TO RANKLE GRANOLA STATUS QUO
Conflict at another left-wing media legacy outlet, Ryerson community radio station CKLN, stopped short of going to court. The hosts of the International Connection, which airs on Sundays from 8:30-10:30am, got their show back after a 14-month termination, during which time a $400,000 lawsuit was filed.

At issue were listener fundraising pledges to CKLN that allegedly ended up in the wrong hands. And that spiraled into by-law disputes about how all business was being done at the station, financially and otherwise. A settlement was reached in mid-December and Greg Duffell and sidekick Daniel Besharat returned to the air.

Fighting for over a year to work for free on the FM dial seems awfully retro in an era when such broadcasting no longer requires an antenna.

“Leftist broadcasters are incredibly boring,” Duffell IMs about his motivation. “They are frightened of everything. They deplore satire. It seems that many of the ideas at CKLN are from the '80s, as if nothing in society has changed. The programming is essentially the same.

“With the technology available to get any music or political content you want, CKLN, or any other media for that matter, become moribund, except to an aging, anti-technology audience. But that audience is literally dying off.”

Yet, the off-air pair felt determined to fight the suspension, spending four seasons of Sunday mornings picketing amidst the tumbleweeds outside CKLN’s new studio at Gould and Church Streets. They wanted to remain part of the possibilities of a collective environment.

International Connection started off as a conspiracy theory-obsessed show in CKLN’s earliest days at 88.1 FM. Duffell, an animation director and noted cartoon historian, moved things in a more irreverent direction after he inherited the show in 2000. Besharat was recruited to play the foil with his laptop full of soundbites, including a complete collection of exhortations from CTV eTalk host Tanya Kim.

Their effort remains comparable to The Colbert Report, only more sympathetic to communism. Playing up his activist inclinations, Duffell makes like an Archie Bunker type, if you could imagine that type learning to love a good WTO protest, espousing the views that are typically responded to with teargas and Tasers.

“This approach is inspired by wartime army training films that were done with animation,” Duffell explains, “where the soldiers picked up the points better than a dry, factual, serious and dull movie.

“An audience respects entertainers who put some effort in. If you listen to some lazy show, how could you be interested unless you’re waiting for a train wreck?

“With us, you’re not waiting for a train wreck. You think we have one planned, with appropriate sound effects. And then, you might have to get out of the way.”

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