The partner of Dalton McGuinty’s deputy chief of staff was paid $10,000 to wipe computer hard drives in the premier’s office, police allege.
By: Robert Benzie Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Richard J. Brennan Provincial Politics, Rob Ferguson , Published on Thu Dec 18 2014
The Liberals spent $10,000 in taxpayers’ money to have the spouse of Dalton McGuinty’s former deputy chief of staff erase government computers in the premier’s office, Ontario Provincial Police allege.
In a 131-page search warrant application from OPP detectives probing deleted documents in the $1.1-billion gas plants scandal, Det.-Const. Andre Duval wrote that computer expert Peter Faist was asked by his spouse, former deputy chief of staff Laura Miller, “to wipe off personal data on approximately 20 desktop computers in the premier’s office.”
“He was paid an amount of $10,000 by the Liberal caucus for his work,” Duval wrote.
The revelation is the latest wrinkle in McGuinty’s controversial decision to scrap two gas-fired power plants before the 2011 Ontario election in order to save five Liberal-held ridings. The $10,000 transaction also raises questions as to why the Liberal Caucus Service Bureau would pay a private contractor — not a government employee with required security clearances — to delete information on government computers.
The Liberal Caucus Service Bureau said the allegation about the payment is a surprise.
“We had no information until today that the services invoiced by Mr. Faist may relate to the ongoing investigation into David Livingston,” Liberal caucus communications director André Ghione said in an emailed statement, referring to McGuinty’s former chief of staff.
Miller worked under Livingston, who is being investigated for providing Faist with a special password giving full access to computers in the premier’s office.
Nothing has been proven in court. Livingston has not been charged and has insisted he has done nothing wrong. His lawyer did not return calls or emails from the Star.
Faist’s lawyer declined to comment but said earlier this year his client “has done absolutely nothing wrong.”
The search warrant documents were unsealed Thursday by the Ontario Court of Justice after the Star intervened. Large portions keyed on Livingston, his former deputy, Miller and her spouse, Faist.
The warrant — for email boxes and backup tapes on Livingston and Miller — was executed Nov. 27 at the government’s cyber security office as police follow a paper trail that began with emails recovered under a first search warrant last February.
In the documents, investigators also outline efforts to keep potentially controversial emails from being discovered.
They include Livingston — who is the subject of the anti-rackets probe for breach of trust — specifying which underlings should have their hard drives wiped and advising aides on ways to permanently delete emails.
“Having said all of this, nothing is more confidential than talking rather than writing!” Livingston wrote in an email Aug. 9, 2012.
That was two months before McGuinty resigned suddenly and prorogued the legislature amid a furor over a lack of documents explaining the gas plant cancellations.
Premier Kathleen Wynne’s administration blocked Faist and Miller from testifying before a legislative committee probing the gas plants after winning a majority in the June 12 election, infuriating opposition parties.
According to the warrant application, Faist told police in an interview Oct. 9 that he made the payment deal with Dave Gene, McGuinty’s former operations director.
Gene, reached on a cruise, denied making an arrangement with Faist.
“The answer is NO,” Gene wrote in an email.
Faist’s company, NetCon1, had previously performed work for the Ontario Liberal Party and the Liberal caucus.
Duval also said emails recovered from the previous computer seizure show that Faist tried to delete documents before the special password was granted — something that wary senior civil servants did not know at the time. Miller referred to it in emails as “Pete’s project.”
“Mr. Faist was under the impression that cabinet office was aware of his presence and the work requested of him,” Duval wrote.
Also in the application, Duval says when the OPP’s technological crime unit examined hard drives seized earlier this year it found that special software called “White Canyon” was used to wipe 632,118 files from 20 computers.
Despite the ability of that software to permanently delete data while leaving the computer’s operating system intact, the files scrubbed represent 13 per cent of the data on the hard drives, which held a total of 4.8 million files.
Duval said Faist answered “no” when asked if he knew what documents were deleted and that he told people whose hard drives were being scrubbed to back up any files they still needed on USB keys.
That raises the possibility deleted files may still be in possession of some McGuinty premier’s office staff — something Faist said he also did not know, according to Duval.
He concluded any deleted files are not the fault of Faist, who provided police with emails that could not be recovered from hard drives seized earlier this year.
“The onus of preserving government records was not Mr. Faist’s responsibility, but Mr. Livingston’s,” Duval wrote, noting Livingston had declined to provide a statement to the OPP as of Nov. 21.
Progressive Conservative House leader Steve Clark, whose party requested the probe 18 months ago, said Thursday’s revelation “just proves to me it was a good move on our part to bring in the OPP.”
New Democrat House leader Gilles Bisson said details of the search warrant application are “pretty damning” and called on Wynne to back up her talk about having an “open and transparent government” by letting Faist and Miller testify.
Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk has estimated the cancellations could cost ratepayers and taxpayers as much as to $1.1 billion over 20 years.
McGuinty is not subject of the police investigation, and neither are Faist and Miller, who now live in Vancouver. While Faist agreed to speak with police, Miller had not as of Nov. 21, Duval said.
