Pierre Poutine and the Heart of Darkness

He's still out there hiding in the shadows. His foul breath still hangs heavy in the air. But it seems the trail of the demon dialer Pierre Poutine has come to a dead end.

Elections Canada investigators tracking “Pierre Poutine” hit a dead end when the Internet address behind misleading robocalls in the last election led them to an open Wi-Fi connection in a private residence near Guelph.

So we may never know who tried to steal an election.

Court documents made public Friday show that investigators now consider the IP address “inconclusive,” raising doubt about when, if ever, they will wrap up the politically-charged probe that began more than 14 months ago.

Just like we may never know who attacked the NDP convention.

"The behaviour of the attack suggests that the attack organizers were reacting in real time to information from media — slowing down the attack in between voting rounds, and even temporarily pausing the attack when the NDP announced that the attack had been detected and IP addresses had been identified..."

But at least now there can be no doubt that both were sophisticated criminal operations, and that the police must be called in immediately to track down and arrest those responsible.

Because Susan Delacourt is right. This is no frat boy prank.

Somebody needs to answer questions like this one:

It seems unlikely anyone in the Burke campaign headquarters, which was located northeast of Guelph’s downtown, could have connected to a Wi-Fi signal on the opposite side of the city.

But in court documents, Mathews offers no possible explanation for how or why five campaign workers all signed on from the same IP address used by Poutine — and over a Wi-Fi signal nowhere close to their office.

And although I have a lot of respect for Al Mathews and his investigators, I really have to wonder whether they are equipped to deal with this kind of sophisticated cyber criminality. For why would they not say whether it was a static or a dynamic I.P. address?

Requesting DHCP computers receive a dynamic IP address (think temporary phone number) for the duration of that Internet session or for some other specified amount of time. Once the user disconnects from the Internet, their dynamic IP address goes back into the IP address pool so it can be assigned to another user.

Can they explain why if it was a randomly generated number did so many other campaign workers sign on to it? How deep is that address pool? And why did Poutine also use a proxy server in Saskatchewan to anonymize himself further?

But of course, what I really fear that this investigation won't be able to answer the larger and more frightening question. Is this cyber terrorism the product of one sick fanatic and his basement buddy? Or are a group of Con operatives running a cyber-warfare operation? 

And if so, who are those monsters who would stick a dagger into our democracy?

And what are they trying do to our beautiful country?

But I do know something eh? From what heart of darkness monsters like Pierre Poutine emerged.

From the diseased mind of a man who would treat his opponents as The Enemy and seek to destroy them by whatever means necessary.

From the man who brought Republican-style politics to Canada, and was prepared to do ANYTHING to win his precious majority. And is now prepared to do anything to build that pipeline to British Columbia. 

Yup. Never stop looking for those Con criminals. Jail them when you catch them.

Stand up for our democracy. Make Canada safe again.

Defeat this ghastly leader....

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