By Andrew Macdonald
On the eve of an election call, a blockbuster political move saw Cape Breton Liberal MLA Fred Tilley cross the floor and join the Tim Houston-led Progressive Conservatives.
Whether it is now political posturing or a scorned Liberal party, the Grits took aim at Tilley, and accused him of privacy breaches related to Liberal party computer files.
In a statement, Liberal Party president Margaret Miller said the party has called in RCMP, alleging Tilley accessed personal and private information on party computers of at least 2,500 voters in Tilley’s Cape Breton riding.
Liberal Party president Margaret Miller was an MLA from 2013-2021, and served as Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. NS Legislature photo
Following is Margaret Miller’s statement:
On Oct. 23, the Nova Scotia Liberal Party discovered that MLA Fred Tilley accessed and misappropriated files from the party’s database that contain sensitive personal and proprietary information.
Within hours of discovering this privacy breach, the party notified the RCMP and Elections Nova Scotia to conduct an investigation and pursue charges.
This breach by Mr. Tilley was done intentionally and methodically 24 hours before he crossed the floor, presumably with the knowledge that he would use this information in his campaign as a (Progressive) Conservative in the upcoming snap election.
The downloaded files contain information that is proprietary to the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and highly personal to the party’s members and supporters. There are also nearly 2,500 private elector records and corresponding contact information involved in this breach.
This is a serious violation of the privacy of the electors in Northside-Westmount, as well as sensitive Nova Scotia Liberal Party data and one the party takes seriously.
Nearly 2,500 people in the Northside-Westmount area have been affected by the calculated and unethical actions by Mr. Tilley.
As the rightful and sole owner of that information, the Nova Scotia Liberal Party will begin the process of contacting each individual to make them aware of this breach.
Nothing is more sacred and more private to Nova Scotians than their voting intentions and their voting record.
The confidentiality of our vote is foundational to our democratic system and it is not Mr. Tilley’s to take with him or to share.
The party demands that Mr. Tilley and anyone he shared the files with delete them immediately and report their having accessed or seen or used this data to Elections Nova Scotia and the RCMP.
Mr. Tilley is on the record stating that he was in discussions to switch parties for weeks and that he asked for a Cabinet position in exchange for his crossing.
These are not the actions of someone solely focused on the constituents of Northside-Westmount.
The Nova Scotia Liberal Party has contacted the Commercial Crime section of the RCMP and Elections Nova Scotia to report the data theft.
We expect Mr. Tilley, Premier Houston, and the Nova Scotia Conservatives to cooperate fully with the investigation into this significant data breach.
