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Former Nanaimo city councillor ordered by B.C. Supreme Court to delete leaked documents

Gord Fuller and two other individuals must remove documents from social media platforms
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NEWS BULLETIN file photo

A B.C. judge has ordered a former Nanaimo councillor and two others to delete confidential information they posted on social media.

Gord Fuller, an ex-city councillor, along with Matthew O’Donnell and Tim McGrath, were ordered by Judge Douglas Thompson to remove copies of an e-mail written by former Nanaimo mayor Bill McKay and two letters written by a lawyer to the City of Nanaimo.

Thompson’s ruling comes after the province’s attorney general filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against Fuller, McGrath, O’Donnell and Terry Lee Wagar. However, Wagar, according to Thompson’s ruling, reached a deal with the attorney general.

The attorney general as well as the City of Nanaimo had demanded that the individuals remove letters written in December 2015 from the legal firm Ramsay Lampman Rhodes to McKay and Tracy Samra, the city’s former chief administrative officer, as well as a 2015 e-mail from McKay to the consulting firm Integrity Group, which contained sensitive comments about city councillors.

McGrath had distributed printed copies of McKay’s e-mail to councillors at a council meeting in November 2016. McGrath claimed a copy of the e-mail was left on the windshield of his vehicle. The province had also accused McGrath, O’Donnell, Wager and Fuller of posting the RLR letters on Facebook.

The Office of the Information and Privacy for British Columbia and Sheila Gurrie, the city’s clerk and privacy head, both demanded that the information be removed from social media and destroyed.

A hearing was held on Nov. 7, when Fuller and McGrath both argued that many other people were in possession of the leaked documents. Fuller also argued that council received the RLR letters long before council contemplated going in camera with them. He had also argued that there was nothing on the letters to suggest they were confidential and suggested the timing of the attorney general’s case against him was suspect.

In his ruling, Thompson said the leaked material contained personal information and was in fact in the city’s “custody.” He said even though individuals had copies of the information, it doesn’t mean the city is still not in custody of the information and that Gurrie had the right to demand the individuals remove and destroy the information they shared, even if the city may have been responsible for the leaks.

“The city possesses the e-mail and letters. The fact that the respondents have a copy of these documents does not detract from the city’s custody of the documents and the personal information contained in them,” Thompson said. “I think it likely that the city was the source of the leak of this personal information, but I am not sure that matters.”

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Fuller’s claim that he was selectively targeted by the city because he was planning to run in the upcoming municipal election is meritless, according to Thompson, citing Gurrie’s multiple reports about the breaches going as far back as November 2016. He said it was his “impression” that Gurrie made the requests of Fuller and McGrath because she believed they were “primarily responsible for disseminating” the information.

“I am not satisfied that there is any substance to the suggestion that the city’s timing was politically motivated,” Thompson said.

Thompson ordered Fuller, O’Donnell and McGrath to delete all electronic copies of the e-mail and letters within seven days and deliver any physical copies to the city. The trio also have 14 days to remove the leaked material from all social media platforms “to the extent that they are reasonably capable of excessing control over.” Additionally, the three cannot publish the letters or e-mail unless they receive them via an FOI request.

The city is not responsible for court costs, which are unknown at this time.







nicholas.pescod@nanaimobulletin.com 
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