PC candidate denies getting stolen 407 data

A second Ontario Progressive Conservative candidate accused of having used stolen customer lists from a private toll highway said Wednesday he never received the 407 data, and would have no need for it anyway.

Harjit Jaswal also denied working with a controversial political organizer, prompting that man to produce a written agreement contradicting him.

In an exclusive interview set up by party officials, Jaswal said he recruited members to support his bid for the PC nomination in Brampton Centre by old-fashioned doorknocking and networking, not employing an outside database. He also denied playing any part in a smear campaign against one of his rivals for the nomination using a leaked police arrest report. Jaswal said organizer Snover Dhillon not only didn’t work on his campaign, but returned $10,000 the candidate paid him for unrelated consulting on his real-estate business.

The whole controversy has been manufactured by the media, he charged.

As first documented by the National Post, the private toll road says it was the victim of an “internal theft” of information on 60,000 customers, news that came the same day that PC candidate Simmer Sandhu quit as the Tories’ Brampton East candidate. Sandhu worked at 407 until February, but says any allegations against him are “baseless.”

York Region police and Elections Ontario are investigating. A file seen by the Post that appears to contain the pilfered customer lists says it was “last saved” by D -Media, a Dhillon company. The Liberal party has quoted the organizer as saying that Sandhu, another client, passed on the stolen data to Jaswal. That never happened, the candidate stressed Wednesday.

But part of his story was contradicted by Dhillon, who said he was hired to run Jaswal’s campaign — and produced a contract as evidence of the arrangement. The “consulting agreement” between Jaswal and the Dhillon Group — which Dhillon scanned and emailed to the Post — is headed “For Brampton Centre Campaign,” and dated November 23, 2016. Its authenticity could not be independently verified by the Post.

In it, Dhillon, also known by the first name Sam, agrees to provide various services including “membership sign up and management of those responsible to sign up memberships shall report back to Sam Dhillon.”

The document mentions a flat fee of $15,000, including a $10,000 deposit.

Dhillon said in an interview Wednesday he kept the deposit, though he did refund some additional money that Jaswal paid him for work not completed.

He said Jaswal “never cancelled the contract,” just stopped taking his calls after some negative media reports about the organizer earlier this spring.

Jaswal said later he has never seen or signed such a contract. The probe is ongoing.