Mystery shrouds identity of worker at robocalls firm

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This article was published 20/03/2012 (5299 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A key employee of the company that was used to send out the misdirecting robocalls in Guelph on election day appears not to exist under the name he uses online.

RackNine, the Edmonton company that suspect “Pierre Poutine” used to send voters to the wrong polling locations, is operated by Edmonton businessman Matt Meier. Rick McKnight is identified variously as head of marketing and web developer.

But Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen were unable to find anyone who knows McKnight, even though he has a healthy online identity, including 551 Facebook friends, many of them prominent.

Meier and his lawyer declined Monday to clear up the case of the mysterious McKnight.

Until recently, McKnight was listed as web developer on the LinkedIn business website.

His entry says he studied computer science at Stanford University, and that he was born on Jan. 1, although it doesn’t list the year.

Postmedia was unable to confirm that he attended Stanford.

On Manta, another business networking website, McKnight is listed as the head of marketing for both RackNine and Sumex Inc., an Edmonton investment banking firm.

Russel Matichuk, vice-president of Sumex, said Monday he had talked to RackNine about getting them to do some work, but they never did.

“That’s weird,” he said. “There has never been anyone by that name that’s been head of marketing.”

The only Rick McKnight listed in Alberta directory assistance, a member of the Alberta Beef Producers, doesn’t have anything to do with RackNine, said someone at his home on Monday.

Meier, who is said to be helping Elections Canada with their investigation and has repeatedly said he had no knowledge of the “Poutine” robocalls, has declined to comment on McKnight’s identity.

In an interview, when asked how a reporter could get in touch with McKnight, he said “you don’t,” and hung up.

Later, he referred queries to his lawyer, R. Justin Matthews, who offered a cryptic reply.

“How does one define a real person?” said Matthews in an email. “Would a web-design employee that chooses to use a different name online (which some people seem to do these days) be considered a real person?”

Matthews said he would not reveal McKnight’s identity.

Matthews did not reply to an email asking the purpose of the McKnight Facebook account. “We will not divulge information that could adversely affect someone who is merely an employee of a company,” Matthews wrote.

McKnight maintains a Facebook friendship with many people, including journalists, politicians and officials, although none of those contacted by Postmedia News could say they knew him.

In addition to those who say they don’t know him, McKnight is “friends” with Guy Giorno, who chaired Stephen Harper’s 2011 campaign, Guelph campaign worker Andrew Prescott, former Harper communications directors Dimitri Soudas and Kory Teneycke, and current director of communications for the party Fred DeLorey.

He is also Facebook friends with Susan Delacourt of the Toronto Star and a number of Sun News Network personalties, including Brian Lilley.

McKnight lists as a friend only one opposition MP, Charlie Angus, who has been leading the NDP’s robocalls attacks in the House. But McKnight is friends with dozens of Conservative MPs, including cabinet ministers James Moore, Keith Ashfield, Joe Oliver and Steven Fletcher.

 

— Postmedia News