Dalton McGuinty’s last chief of staff got a deputy’s IT-savvy boyfriend “unrestricted” access to 24 employees’ computers in the premier’s office before and after Kathleen Wynne took power, alleges a search warrant request from an OPP officer probing deleted emails in the $1.1 billion scandal over cancelled power plants.

Before obtaining the access, chief of staff David Livingston told the executive assistant to Cabinet Secretary Peter Wallace of his intent to use a person from outside the Ontario Public Service to wipe out hard drives in the offices of the premier during the transition to Wynne’s government, the document alleges.

Information in the warrant application has not been tested in court.

Its approval cleared the way for the Ontario Provincial Police anti-rackets squad to take 24 computer hard drives from a Mississauga data storage warehouse, according to documents ordered unsealed Thursday by a judge in Ottawa at the Star’s request.

The warrant says police believe information on the drives will yield evidence Livingston committed breach of trust in obtaining the access.

The seizure on February 19 revived interest in the OPP investigation launched last summer after the NDP and Progressive Conservatives raised concerns about a surprising lack of emails on the plant cancellations from the offices of the premier and energy minister.

Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian undertook her own probe and wrote a scathing report on “routine deletion of emails” contrary to the Archives and Recordkeeping Act. It was followed by complaints to the OPP from two Conservative MPPs about stolen documents in a “cover-up” of the true costs of the plant cancellations.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has since pegged the costs of axing and relocating power plants from Mississauga and Oakville at up to up to $1.1 billion, almost five times higher than the government’s original $230 million estimate.

In 111 pages of search warrant materials, Det.-Const. Andre Duval details months of extensive interviews with top bureaucrats, current and former Liberal political staff at Queen’s Park, where an election looms if the minority government’s upcoming budget fails a vote in the legislature.

“The search, seizure and subsequent examination of the 24 work station hard drives. . . will either exonerate or afford significant evidence that David Livingston committed the offence of breach of trust,” he wrote in his application.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Livingston, a former TD Bank executive, is now a senior advisor at the law firm Borden Ladner Gervais. McGuinty has stated he did not order the destruction of any documents.

It is not known what, if anything, the OPP’s technological services unit, which is doing a forensic examination of the computers, has found since the hard drive seizure February 19.

Duval’s application led the justice of the peace through a chain of events leading up to the power plant cancellations – which opposition parties charge were scrapped amid local opposition to save Liberal seats in the 2011 election – and Wynne’s ascension to power just over a year ago.

The detective alleges Livingston got senior bureaucrats to give his executive assistant Wendy Wai, who has since left the government, “unrestricted” administrative passwords to premier’s office computers that would make it possible to delete or change files without leaving a footprint.

This happened after the province’s top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Peter Wallace, originally objected but relented after being told seven staffers in the premier’s office already had “administrative access” to their computers. However, Wallace told police he was not made aware that their access was much more limited in scope, which Duval flags as a slip-up.

Duval alleges the broader access codes were given to information technology expert Peter Faist, described as the “life partner” of Laura Miller, McGuinty’s former deputy chief of staff for communications and strategy. Faist is listed on the networking site Yatedo as a senior network architect at Plan Group, overseeing technology implementation at the new Humber River Regional Hospital.

“I believe that David Livingston committed the offence of breach of trust by allow a non-Ontario Public Service Employee, namely Mr. Peter Faist, to use the administrative right of his executive assistant Wendy Wai to access 24 desktop computers in the premier’s office between the 6th of February 2013 and the 20th of March 2013,” Duval wrote.

Wynne took the oath of office on February 11 of that year after winning the Liberal leadership convention on January 26, three months after McGuinty suspended the legislature because of a furor over the gas plants and contempt of parliament accusations at then-energy minister Chris Bentley for refusing to disclose documents when ordered by a legislative committee. Bentley said he could not reveal documents when compensation negotiations were taking place with the builders of the plants.

“I have reasonable grounds to believe that the forensic examination of the 24 work stations will reveal if data was accessed, manipulated or deleted,” Duval added in his submission.

Livingston, a former TD Bank executive who went on to head the government’s Infrastructure Ontario agency, has testified before a legislative committee investigating the power plant cancellations that he simply wanted to clear computers before Wynne’s team took over and had no training in what records were to be kept.

“Mr. Livingston had no motive to ‘cover up” anything because, in his view, there was nothing to cover up. All costs that he viewed as truly related to the cancelled contracts had been disclosed,” Livingston’s lawyer, Brian Gover of Stockwoods LLP, wrote to the OPP in a November letter.

In it, Gover warned none of Livingston’s testimony could be used against him if charges of breach of trust were pending and stated there is “no reasonable prospect” prosecutors could prove Livingston tried to use his office for a “dishonest, partial, corrupt or oppressive purpose” as outlined in the Criminal Code.

Duval said that Livingston, Miller, who worked on the re-election campaign of Premier Christy Clark in British Columbia, and Wai, who now works at Ryerson University, had declined to talk to police as of January 31. It is not known if they have since been interviewed.

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Wallace, the cabinet secretary, told police that he did not take it seriously when he heard Livingston mentioned bringing in Faist to clean the computers.

“Nothing penetrated my consciousness where I thought, oh my goodness, you know they are stepping right outside of procedure here and I better go write them a memo…that’s such a piece of shit. Like, I’m not going to write you a memo saying don’t do that, because you already know don’t do that,” Wallace said colourfully in an October interview with police.

Duval alleged Livingston “might have compromised the integrity” of the premier’s office by bringing Faist in, bypassing “rigourous” government protocols on using outsiders.

“No security screening was ever conducted on Mr. Peter Faist even though he was allowed access to the desktop computers of Premier McGuinty’s office and potentially sensitive government documents,” Duval wrote.

“It is reasonable to infer that Mr. Faist would most likely follow the directives of Mr. Livingston and not concerned (sic) himself with government policies regarding document retention.”

On February 7, 2013, the OPP says Faist was escorted by Miller’s assistant to the desk of McGuinty media staffer Lauren Ramey, now press secretary to Education Minister Liz Sandals, introduced as Miller’s “boyfriend,” logged on to her computer and began typing.

“I assume he got rid of something…they were going to get it, to get the computers prepared for the next round of staff,” Ramey told police in an interview, adding she was accustomed to calling government IT staff for any computer help.

Wai, who had been given the access codes, was not present and her computer would not work after Faist left, prompting Ramey to call a technician.

“I remember the screen was black,” Ramey said in a September interview with police. A colleague, Jason Lagerquist, had a similar experience and also called Thom Stenson of the government’s IT service.

“There were a few, maybe a couple, in which it was clear that files have been deleted…you’ve just basically mucked with a computer to the point where it’s no longer functioning…we were not sure exactly what system files might have been damaged,” Stenson told police early in their investigation last July.

Another IT staffer told police a Dell “software tool” had been left on both Ramey and Lagerquist’s computers, which Duval suspects might be to “disguise” data on a hard drive.

“Electronic files that constitute evidence can easily be renamed to appear as otherwise innocuous system files and/or be moved into directories housing unrelated programs,” Duval wrote.

Last September, as the OPP investigation continued, the cabinet office asked the government’s Cyber Security Branch to begin a forensic review of all computers accessed through the special passwords given to Wai, Livingston’s assistant, who was not known for any computer expertise.

It was found that Miller’s computer was accessed the day before Ramey and Lagerquist’s, on February 6. Duval said this was a test “to verify the capabilities” of the global password given to Wai.

Also during that probe, it was found 24 of 52 desktops had been accessed using the Wai passwords, including those of Livingston and senior staff Dave Gene, John Brodhead, Wendy McCann, along with McGuinty executive assistant Tracey Sobers and others including Beckie Codd-Downie, now press secretary to Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, Leon Korbee and Rebecca MacKenzie, a top aide to Government House Leader John Milloy.

Four of those 24 computers contained data on the dates and times Wai’s password was used on them, including Miller’s twice on February 6, 2013 for a total of 25 minutes, according to the government’s Cyber Security Branch report last December 6.

“It would be a reasonable investigative theory to conclude that Peter Faist was the person who accessed the 24 work stations,” Duval concluded.

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