Tories take action after membership list shared

OTTAWA – The Conservative party is demanding that the National Firearms Association destroy a party membership list that it appears to have illicitly obtained.

In a post to its Facebook page, the party says it is aware that some members have been contacted by “an outside organization.”

The party says it will be issuing a “cease and desist” letter to that organization and will demand that it destroy the list.

It also says it has identified the parties responsible for sharing the membership information and will be taking disciplinary action against them.

The move comes after numerous Conservatives complained through social media that they’d received a letter this week from the National Firearms Association, seeking a donation.

They suspected that the association had obtained their names and addresses from the party membership list, distributed to each of the 14 candidates during the leadership race, which concluded last weekend with the election of Andrew Scheer. “The Conservative party has not - and will never - release our members’ personal information to anyone,” the party says in the Facebook post.

“We regret that this incident has occurred. We have always taken our members’ privacy very seriously, and will continue to do so.”