Michael Moore files complaint against Cameron Ross

The following statement was issued this Canadian Thanksgiving morning by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore:

************************* This morning I called Elections Canada to report an attempt by a Conservative Party candidate to violate Canadian election Law.

Last week, before entering Canada to film the Canadian election process with my documentary crew, we were invited by Ross's campaign manager, Ian Shields, to go ‘door-to-door campaigning’ with Cameron Ross.

We agreed. (I have sworn affidavits of two people to this conversation.)

But when the time came to follow Ross around after a local debate, he suddenly bolted out a side door and disappeared.

Stranded and not knowing what to do, we were approached by one of Ross's opponents, Tony Martin of the NDP (and the incumbent MP).

He felt sorry for us and said we could film him going door-to-door instead.

We did not know this man, but he seemed to be a normal Canadian who, I guess, was just being kind and polite to us lost and clueless Americans.

So my crew followed Mr. Martin into a neighborhood.

The crew went with him to less than a dozen houses filming and merely observing his door-to-door campaigning.

I did not join them.

Rather, I stayed in the van, still sulking over the snub by the Conservative who deserted me.

Eventually, I joined the crew for the final two neighborhood homes and interviewed the residents about how they felt about Tony Martin.

This was also all filmed by a CTV crew who was following us around.

Cameron Ross lured us into Canada to go door-to-door with him - and then filed a complaint that we were going door-to-door and interfering with the Canadian election!

I should have seen the trap he was setting, but I assumed that because he was a "Conservative" (which I know is not the same as the breed of conservatives we deal with in the U.S.) he was not smart enough to be so devious.

Considering it was the Ross campaign who suggested we ‘interfere,’ we believe Mr. Ross conspired to break the law - and get us to break it with him.

Does Mr. Ross do this sort of thing often?

Has he broken the law before?

We don't know this man, but I think someone at Elections Canada should investigate him.

Also, I noticed he was not wearing a Canadian flag lapel pin.

In my country this is considered unpatriotic.

- Michael Moore

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