New documents confirm Liberals wiped hard drives, paid $10,000 to do it, then lied about it: Gas Plant Scandal

NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson demands Premier Wynne call Laura Miller, Peter Faist and others to testify at the gas plant committee, in light of new evidence confirming that the Liberals paid $10,000 of public money to have government hard drives wiped using military-grade software and then lied about deleting them in gas plant scandal.

“The documents revealed today that the Liberals wiped out hard drives with military grade software, paid $10,000 to do it, and then lied about it. That’s enough to make Frank Underwood blush,” said Bisson.  “Premier Wynne and the Liberals have to come clean.  The only way we can get to the truth is to make sure these people testify.  If Premier Wynne is so open and transparent, then she’ll make sure that happens.  If not, then she’s continues to be part of the cover-up.” 

Today the documents were unsealed from an OPP search warrant into the deleting of emails and breach of trust in the cancellation of the Oakville and Mississauga gas plants that will cost tax payers up to $1.1 billion.

New Democrats repeatedly called for Faist and Miller to testify and tell Ontarians what happened, but Premier Wynne made sure that opportunity never came to light.  Bisson said Dalton McGuinty was protecting his Liberal friends then and Premier Wynne is continuing to protect them now. 

It’s clear why Premier Wynne shut down the hearings at the gas plant committee, because she was:

• covering up the fact that Ontarians paid a $10,000 bill to wipe computers;
• covering up the fact that there are even more senior Liberal Staff like Deputy Chief of Staff Dave Gene, Press Secretary Neala Barton and Executive Director of Communications Wendy McCann involved in the cover-up;
• covering up the fact that the deleted emails might have been saved on secret USB drives which still might still be out there;
• covering up the fact that senior Liberal staff took every step they could to get around Freedom of Information laws; and
• covering up the fact that there is a lot more information still to be uncovered.

Some of the documents released showed:

• Senior Liberal operatives believe the government should be “unapologetic” for its actions;
• Police Investigator believe that Senior Liberals broke Freedom of Information Laws to avoid NDP FOI requests; and
• Senior Liberals appear to have used non-legislative accounts to get around rules about retaining information. 

New Democrats are also calling on Dave Gene, Neala Barton and Wendy McCann to testify at the gas plant committee.