Two police forces probe info leak
Police in two separate jurisdictions are investigating leaks of confidential information allegedly used by Ontario Progressive Conservatives in nomination battles for the June 7 election.
Officers with the York Region department north of Toronto have begun looking into the “internal theft” of information on 60,000 customers of the private 407 ETR toll highway.
As first reported by the National Post, an ex-company employee resigned suddenly this week as a PC candidate in Brampton East riding, amid evidence some of the 407 customer names, addresses and phone numbers may have been used to sign up new Tory members.
The NDP has formally asked Elections Ontario to investigate whether other candidates have used the data, as the incident becomes a major issue in the election.
Tory Leader Doug Ford repeated Friday that the party took swift action over the affair, accepting candidate Simmer Sandhu’s resignation, and does not believe it extends any further.
“As soon as we found out about it, we acted immediately. The candidate is no longer with us. We replaced the candidate,” Ford told reporters in London, Ont. “We take Elections Ontario seriously. It was very serious and we won’t tolerate anything like that in this campaign.”
Meanwhile, the Toronto police professional standards department has taken over a Peel Region police probe into the unauthorized release of an arrest report, which in turn was mailed out in an apparent smear campaign against a would-be Conservative candidate in another riding. That contender for the Brampton Centre candidacy was disqualified by the party just before the nomination vote last month.
Although the arrest report was prepared by Peel police, the force says the document was accessed by a Toronto police employee through the Police Information Portal.
The Peel force has completed its investigation for now but, depending on what Toronto uncovers, it may revive its probe and look at whether use of the documents broke any laws, said Sgt. Matt Bertram, a department spokesman.
“We could end up laying charges if something is warranted,” he said. “You start giving it to somebody, they’re the ones that mail it, they ’re in possession of it … It could become criminal if more people are involved.”
The report dealt with the aborted arrest in 2016 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 emailed to the Post.
The men were released less than half an hour after their arrest in a restaurant parking lot, when police were unable to find enough evidence to lay charges, the document said.