Leaked police document used to smear candidate
Peel force investigates records breach
A Toronto-area police force is investigating an apparent leak after confidential police documents about an aborted drug arrest were used to try to discredit a man vying to be a candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives.
That individual, whom the National Post has chosen not to name because of the confidential nature of the information about him, was disqualified as a candidate by the party the day before the nomination vote last month in the riding of Brampton Centre.
But a few days before the vote, somebody mailed PC members in the riding a Peel Regional Police report on the 2016 arrest of three men over possible cocaine possession, along with a cover letter highlighting the name of the would-be candidate — who was among those arrested — and declaring, “let us clean the rot from the roots.” Parts of the report were also mailed to the Post.
Not included in the material mailed to the Post was a section of the report outlining that the suspects were released “unconditionally” within half an hour, as officers failed to find evidence to lay charges.
The report appears to have been obtained through the Police Information Portal (PIP), a system that gives officers access to internal records from other police departments that wouldn’t normally be available on CPIC, the RCMP’s criminalrecords system.
The criminal investigation bureau of the Peel police is looking into how the records got out, said Sgt. Matt Bertram, a spokesman for the force. They have determined that no one working for the Peel department itself had a hand in the leak, he said, but it could have been another force.
“If it is another agency or another department, then I imagine the investigation would be passed over to them,” said Bertram. “We’re looking into whether this is anything criminal. We’re getting advice on that.”
The candidate targeted by the mail campaign could not be reached for comment. A Toronto law firm that is reportedly representing him said “it will not be possible to provide any information at all in this particular case.”
The documents relate to the arrest of the disqualified candidate and two other men in Brampton at about 10:20 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 2016. Officers found them in a Hummer truck at a Kelsey’s restaurant, the report said, and saw a white substance they believed was cocaine on the pant leg of one passenger and trace amounts of it in a clear bag. But police could not obtain a “viable sample” of the powder for testing and freed the men 29 minutes later, the report said.
The document indicates that it was released through the PIP on Feb. 6, 2018. Under the heading “Released to,” it says only “Name: TP.”
The office of Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner said it had not heard about the situation but planned to reach out to Peel police to ensure such sensitive records are being properly safeguarded.
The potential leak of confidential police documents adds to a litany of controversies around Conservative nominations for the June 7 election — problems new leader Doug Ford has vowed to stamp out.
Jag Badwal, the party president, said he was aware of neither the smear campaign nor the police investigation, and could not comment on why the candidate was disqualified at the last minute.
“There were a lot of factors that we considered, but those are internal party matters that we usually don’t discuss,” he said.
Badwal confirmed the man remains in a senior volunteer position with the Brampton Centre PC riding association despite his disqualification as a potential candidate.
A dozen or more PC nomination contests have ended in controversy over the last year or so, with allegations of membership fraud and vote rigging. The election in one riding, Hamilton West Ancaster, is being investigated by local police.
After Ford was elected leader in March he said he would review many of the nominations, and later overturned six of them, ordering new votes. Then two weeks ago, he appointed candidates in 11 unfilled ridings, saying the looming election demanded fast action.
Brampton Centre held its election April 22, with real estate broker Harjit Jaswal winning. He could not be reached for comment.
WE’RE LOOKING INTO WHETHER THIS IS ANYTHING CRIMINAL.