Liberals behind Vikileaks: Toews

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This article was published 03/08/2012 (3893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Vic Toews believes the Liberals have proven a stream of tweets about his divorce last winter was a plan by party leadership, not just the whim of a rogue staffer.

Toews tweeted twice Thursday after it was made public Adam Carroll, the Liberal staffer who resigned after being identified as the creator of Vikileaks30, was rehired by the party this summer.

“I see @AdamGCarroll is back at #LPC after crocodile tear apology from @bobraeMP. @justintrudeau & #LPC must come clean on who knew what,” Toews tweeted.

About 40 minutes later he added, “while I am on the topic, when will @bobRaeMP and #LPC repay the inappropriate use of HoC resources? Blatant disrespect for taxpayer $$$.”

Last February, an anonymous Twitter account, @vikileaks30, was created the day after Toews accused a Liberal MP of supporting pedophiles for criticizing government legislation that would have given the government more access to private information about Canadians on the Internet. Over a couple of days @vikileaks30 repeatedly tweeted details of a messy divorce between Toews and his ex-wife.

The Speakers’ Office in the House of Commons traced the computer used to make the tweets to Carroll, who was at that time a researcher in the Liberal Research Bureau.

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae asked Carroll to resign and came clean about the identity of Vikileaks following question period. He also apologized to Toews for the incident.

Carroll later testified at a House of Commons committee about the incident and said he acted completely on his own. He said he was inspired to start the account to shame Toews out of pursuing the private information of Canadians and for Toews to see what it was like to have information about him made public.

Carroll noted all the information he tweeted was from the public court file from Toews’ divorce. He said the file was in the Liberal party offices in Ottawa though it has never been clear exactly how it got there.

In June, Carroll was hired to work in the headquarters of the Liberal Party of Canada. It is technically a separate branch from the party’s parliamentary offices, where Carroll used to work. He is now paid by the party, not by the taxpayer.

The Conservatives, however, are incensed.

“The Liberal Party of Canada has rehired disgraced Liberal staffer Adam Carroll, just months after firing him for using House of Commons resources to launch a vicious, personal attack against the Minister of Public Safety,” said Toews’ spokesman Mike Mueller in an email.

“This dramatic reversal by the Liberal Party suggests that Carroll acted with the full knowledge and consent of the senior ranks of the Liberal Party. It’s clear now more than ever that Mr. Carroll did not act alone, as he claimed.”

Carroll, however, is not the first political staffer to resign in the glare of scandal only to show up again in a different job for the same party not long after.

In 2011, Kasra Nejatian was fired from Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office after he sent a fundraising letter for the Conservative Party on ministerial letterhead. He was rehired as Kenney’s director of communications three months later. Nejatian is currently the director of strategic planning in Kenney’s office.

During the 2008 federal election, Conservative party spokesman Ryan Sparrow resigned after bad mouthing the father of a fallen Afghanistan soldier. Sparrow turned up again in the Conservative roster shortly after the election concluded as communications director for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley. He has since left government for the private sector.

The Liberals would not comment on Carroll’s hiring. A spokeswoman said the party does not comment on personnel matters.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca