York police probe 407 data breach
Alleged incident led to Brampton East candidate’s resignation
Alleged theft linked to the resignation of Brampton-area PC candidate,
Police are now investigating the alleged theft of personal data from f the company that owns Hwy. 407 in a case that is linked to the resignation of a Brampton-area PC candidate. “We did receive a request from
the 407 and the York Regional Police’s major fraud unit is in tthe early stages of the investiga- tion,” Const. Marina Orlovski said Friday.
Earlier in the day during a campaign stop in London, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford faced questions about the alleged breach and the t possibility that other candi- dates may have had access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of about 60,000 407 ETR customers that the toll highway believes to have been stolen.
Ford’s opponents have urged Elections Ontario to investigate the matter as well. “As soon as we found out about it, we acted immediately — the candidate is no longer wwith us, we replaced the candi- date and you are going to have to talk to the 407,” Ford said of Brampton East candidate Simmer Sandhu. “But let’s make no mistake about it: We take Elections Ontario seriously. It was vvery serious and we won’t toler- aate anything like that in our campaign.”
On Wednesday, Sandhu posted on Twitter that he would not run, saying anonymous accusa- tions had been made “pertaining to both my work life and my nomination campaign” — allegations he planned to defend “vigorously.” “
Although there have been media reports that several candidates may also have been involved, Ford said “as far as we
know that was the only riding; we acted immediately.”
Rival parties wrote to Elections Ontario Thursday, with tthe NDP urging an immediate investigation into any possible data breaches, and the Liberals asking for a probe of an April 29 PC fundraiser, which Ford said he mistakenly attended.
Ford said Friday that the PC party is conducting an “internal investigation” after he went to
the fundraiser, which is in clear violation of new campaign rules. He said that he’d been misled about the event and only re- alized the mistake after being contacted by the Star. Ford said he stayed at the fundraiser for “an hour, maybe an hour and a bit.” “We dismissed (the organizer)” after learning attendees paid to be there, he also said. “at I was mis-informed — and I’m going to repeat that,” he said.
“I go to hundreds of events. I’m very clear when I go there that they are meet-and-greets … vestigation proper make we’re sure protocol doing that and an never we’re in internal place happens putting in- to again.” rio, In PC a letter lawyer to Arthur Elections Hamilton Onta-said evidence the party of any has fundraising “found no contribution or donation ever being received in respect or because of the April 29 event in Scarborough.”
Although ticket prices ranged from $250-a-plate to $2,000 for a seat at the head table, the Tories insist no money ever flowed to the party.
“As such, it appears that this April 29 event cannot properly be described as a fundraising eevent as defined by the Elec- tions Finance Act, and further, tthat leader Ford’s attendance at it did not offend the prohibition ( in the law),” he wrote.
In Toronto, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne didn’t weigh in on Ford’s candidate woes.
“I’m going to leave those questions to Mr. Ford,” she said.
While in London, Ford spoke of his party’s health-care platform, which includes 15,000 new long-term-care beds over the next five years, and a10-year commitment to spend $1.9 billion on mental health and addictions. His party has also pledged a $98-million-a-year dental care plan for low-income seniors.