Attack ads take aim at Vaughan councillors seeking re-election

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 7, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

It’s taken longer than expected, but attack ads targeting candidates in Vaughan’s municipal election have started popping up.

Two websites aimed at incumbent Regional Councillor Deb Schulte and incumbent Maple/Kleinburg Councillor Marilyn Iafrate went live last week.

The sites are similar in look and content.

At the top of the page, in capital letters, it says: Vote for Someone Else!

Below is picture of the respective candidates beside a red and white 'hello, my name is' sticker. In the box on the sticker, where you write your name, it says: Tax Increase.

Underneath that are the words Deb Schulte failed Vaughan residents while in Iafrate’s case, it says Marilyn Iafrate failed Maple/Kleinburg Ward 1 residents.

That’s followed by a list of ways in which they allegedly “failed” constituents.

Schulte called the attack ads “disappointing,” but said she’s not surprised.

“When you are an agent of change you draw the ire of those that do not want change,” she said.” It only strengthens my resolve to continue the transformation at city hall and better serve the taxpayer.”

Iafrate has also been targeted on a Tumblr page and in a YouTube video that emerged last week.

They contain similar phrases and refer to many of the same issues as the websites. Those attack ads also contain potentially libellous statements.

“I’m disappointed because here we are all trying to work together and bring forward a positive image of the city and this is exactly the kind of stuff that the residents, the taxpayers, voted against in the last election,” Iafrate said. “A lot of that information is not accurate. This is exactly the kind of stuff that people want to get away from and it just shows that if people are not careful, they’re just going to get same old, same old. They’re just going to revert back to the old days where this was very common.”

It’s unclear, at this point, who is behind the attack ads.

There is nothing identifying a person or group as the creator or administrator for the websites, video or Tumblr page. And there is no contact information either.

The domain names for both websites were registered Oct. 1 through a proxy service, which is often done by people looking to hide their identity.

The YouTube video and Tumblr page were both posted Sept. 30.

Anonymous attack ads, both online and in print, were rampant in the 2010 Vaughan municipal election and were mostly aimed at the incumbents.

“It’s a cowardly thing. It doesn’t give us a chance to directly address them and find out what their beef is and bring it out in the open,” Schulte said. “It’s not the way I operate. I always stay positive. ...I don’t resort to name calling or demeaning people or being negative about them.”

Iafrate echoed those comments.

“It’s a coward who hides behind a website like that and they should come forward and identify themselves so that the public, and all of us, can talk to them and challenge them on what they’ve said,” Iafrate said. “I’m not going to engage in that type of activity. And, in fact, to even waste my time giving whoever is doing this any credibility is not what I’m prepared to do. If people want to see what I’ve done, go to my website because I have laid out every single thing I have done for the community.”