Late on the Thursday night before Kathleen Wynne was sworn in as premier of Ontario in early 2013, a computer whiz from outside the government methodically began wiping the hard drives of numerous computers in the office of outgoing Premier Dalton McGuinty, according to allegations police have made in a search warrant.

In the forensic hunt for clues to date, police allege computer whiz Peter Faist was tampering with computers as late at 7:41 p.m. on Feb. 7, a time when Queen’s Park’s offices would be all but empty.

Police suspect that Faist, allegedly at the instigation of McGuinty’s chief of staff, David Livingston, cleaned out 24 computers that held sensitive government information, some of it potentially connected to the gas plant cancellation. Livingston, in a letter his lawyer provided to police, has denied any wrongdoing and claimed a lack of understanding of protocols around record retention in government.

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Faist, the bearded computer whiz, describes himself on his Twitter account as a “technologist, car lover, food tourist, audio zealot, music addict, passionately political, and a sports fan.” He would not speak to the Star on Thursday when approached at his Liberty Village condominium.

According to an Ontario Provincial Police detective on the case, Faist is the “life partner” of Laura Miller, McGuinty’s former deputy chief of staff for communications and strategy.

These few personal details stand out in an essentially dry document police have filed in court, stating they have grounds to believe that former chief of staff Livingston committed a breach of trust by allowing an outsider access to sensitive information, which was then wiped clean.

The document filed by detectives details what they know and what they want to find out by retrieving from a Mississauga firm the 24 computer hard drives at issue.

Here’s what detectives say they know. Information in the warrant application has not been tested in court:

The OPP document lays out a series of steps that brought Faist — with no security clearance — into the highest offices at Queen’s Park just as an outgoing premier was saying goodbye and the next premier was preparing to be sworn in.

According to police, they have evidence that 24 computers were tampered with. They have determined that five of those were tampered with prior to Wynne becoming premier. They are seeking evidence on when the suspected wiping of the remaining 19 computers took place, though police say they believe it was some time between Feb. 4 and March 20, 2013.

In the police documents, detectives describe interviews with numerous bureaucrats at Queen’s Park and how they learned that rigorous rules govern who can be hired to work for government. Detectives have found no record of a Peter Faist being hired.

What detectives say they have discovered is that beginning in January 2013, with his boss, McGuinty, on the way out, chief of staff Livingston was contacting top government officials asking questions about how he would gain “administrative access” to computers in the premier’s office. Administrative access, the detectives explain, would give the user the right to add or delete programs, or wipe the entire computer clean.

There were several meetings over this issue, and the OPP documents describe the reluctance of top bureaucrats to give such authority to a non-IT (information technology) staff person, though they ultimately gave it to a very junior Queen’s Park employee.

In one section of the police document, detectives quote Steen Hume, the executive assistant to the cabinet secretary, recalling Livingston’s approach:

“Mr. Livingston expressed interest in obtaining administrative rights in order to wipe out hard drives during the transition period to the Wynne government,” according to Hume’s recollection of the January discussion. Hume went on to tell detectives that Livingston would use the “life partner” of McGuinty’s now former communications deputy to “wipe clean the hard drives at the Premier’s Office.”

That stunning comment was relayed by Hume to Peter Wallace, cabinet secretary and head of the Ontario civil service, though the latter said he did not put much stock in it. Wallace told police in an interview that he assumed Livingston was just frustrated with the Queen’s Park IT department and he did not feel a need to take action as he assumed Livingston would know he could not bring in an outside computer technician with no security clearance.

“It’s one of those things that you really don’t take that seriously,” Wallace told police. Later, though, he wrote a memo to Livingston reminding him of the importance of record retention.

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Ultimately, a decision was made by Wallace to grant the access requested. According to the police document, Wallace thought what was being approved was a more routine request and not complete administrative access to 24 computers filled with sensitive information.

Who did they give access to? A junior assistant to Livingston, Wendy Wai (now working at Ryerson University). Recently promoted from receptionist, Wai is described as someone with low computer skills who frequently made panicked phone calls to the Queen’s Park IT department. Not someone capable of scrubbing a computer hard drive.

“She could probably go through and search files but I wouldn’t expect that she would be able to make any changes to the computer,” a senior cabinet office member said in a statement.

Wai was given administrative access to 24 computers from the premier’s office on Monday, Feb. 4. It was a busy time for the office: Wynne had emerged victorious at the Liberal leadership convention the week before (after McGuinty announced his retirement in fall 2012) and was preparing to be sworn in as premier.

According to the police documents, Peter Faist showed up that week at the premier’s office. One person recalls he was referred to as “Laura Miller’s boyfriend” (Miller was then the premier’s deputy communications boss). Several premier’s office employees describe Faist accessing their computers and said they later found their screens “black” and could not log on. Wendy Wai, who had the permission to access their computers, was not there, the premier’s office employees told detectives.

At the time the search warrant was written, in February 2014, detectives were still seeking permission to seize hard drives from the 24 computers they believed were wiped clean. They need the hard drives to determine both what was on them and when and by whom they were tampered with. The hard drives were being stored after removal from Queen’s Park at a Mississauga data firm.

Through recovery of the logs of five computers, detectives say they have evidence that someone using Wai’s administrative clearance accessed the computers on Wednesday, Feb. 6, and Thursday, Feb. 7. The access took place in the afternoon and evening. A government IT official was called in soon after (the employees could not turn on their computers) and the official told police later that someone had “mucked” with the computers.

“Either Wendy or someone using her account had made some changes to the computer that made it basically no longer functioning,” the IT official told police.

Police believe that person was Faist, at the request of Livingston.

When detectives went to Ryerson recently to interview Wai, she was upset and said she was “given some sort of access but I didn’t know anything about what to do with it.” Then Wai asked to speak to her lawyer.

The police allegations state they are investigating Livingston for breach of trust. They do not state that they are investigating anyone else.

In a letter to the OPP from Livingston’s lawyer, Brian Gover, the lawyer writes that “there are absolutely no grounds to believe that any offence occurred, much less one in which Mr. Livingston was involved.”

Gover also notes that Livingston, who spent most of his life working in the banking industry, arrived for what turned out to be a nine-month stint in government with “no training, guidelines, advice in record-keeping practices or requirements.”

Wynne was sworn in as premier on Monday, Feb. 11, 2013.

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