William D. Casey, M.P.
Cumberland Colchester
712 Confederation Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
House of Commons
Chambre des communes
Canada
Press Release
Ottawa Tel: (613) 992-3366
Ottawa Fax: (613) 992-7220
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Truro Tel: (902) 893-2455
Bizarre Corrections Canada Telemarketing Scheme in the United States
October 30, 2002
Ottawa - It has become apparent that Correctional Service Canada (CSC), the Federal Government’s Penitentiary Organization, has been conducting a telemarketing program targeting United States citizens in Idaho and Washington. CSC trained and paid inmates of the Westmoreland Institute in Dorchester, New Brunswick to call residents in Idaho and Washington State to convince those residents to go to a meeting where they would be sold timeshare condominiums in Fiji and other exotic locations. As “bait” the federal inmates offered free gambling weekends in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada.
Although the inmates were incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in Dorchester, New Brunswick, they were instructed by Corrections Canada to tell those people called in Idaho and Washington that they represented a Washington Company that specializes in timeshare units.
When this issue originally became public, the Solicitor General in charge of CSC indicated that there was no risk to any citizens, because all of the contact information was kept from the inmates making the telephone calls. However, a KPMG Forensic Audit may have determined on October the 12th that some of the inmates, in fact, did have access to the personal information of the citizens in Idaho and Washington State. This information might be useful in combination with the knowledge that the people might be away on one of the Las Vegas gambling junkets or visiting a condo in Fiji at a given time.
Member of Parliament Bill Casey, who lives nearby Westmoreland Institute and heard of the scheme through employees, raised this issue in the Parliament of Canada. Three days after KPMG Forensic did the audit, the operation was shut down after the report was written outlining the irregularities.
Casey said, “I have no idea if this operation was illegal under the Statutes of Idaho, Washington, or even Canada, but it certainly is inappropriate for the Government of Canada to be operating a telemarketing scheme from a Canadian prison into another country.”
Casey has pressed to have this concept completely disbanded and stopped. The Solicitor General, in turn, has said he has suspended the operation but is reviewing any future continuation of the scheme.
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For further information:
Bill Casey, M.P.
Cumberland Colchester
(613) 992-3366