MacKay campaign subject of RCMP, OPP probes into allegations of spying on O’Toole meetings

The RCMP and Ontario police are looking into the O'Toole campaign's allegations that senior MacKay staffers persuaded a junior MP staffer to provide crucial login information to their campaign.

As a result of this alleged hack, MacKay's team would have been able to access large swathes of crucial campaign information and tactics—giving a significant advantage to the Nova Scotian's campaign.

“Campaigning in the time of COVID-19, there are internal video conferences to replace boardroom meetings about the platform, the message-of-the-day, debate prep, issues management, strategic planning, fundraising. It’s all happening in that virtual boardroom that is Zoom," a senior O'Toole spokesperson told the National Post.

On Friday, the O'Toole campaign accused Jamie Lall as the MacKay advisor who managed to persuade the junior staffer into sending this information. The O'Toole campaign has a confession letter from this junior staffer.

Jamie Lall has denied the O'Toole campaign's accusations, saying "not a word of this is true" on social media.

According to the O'Toole campaign, however, Lall convinced the junior staffer to download private calls held between O'Toole campaign advisors which they would then share with the MacKay campaign.

Lall and the junior staffer would also meet in person where they would secretly exchange vital information.

The O'Toole campaign began investigating a potential breach after a private call was leaked to Ici-Radio Canada. From this, O'Toole's digital team began to track the IP addresses which they then linked to Zoom email addresses.

The MacKay campaign has not commented on this allegation, saying that "the O’Toole campaign has made accusations but has failed to give us anything at all to back up those accusations. We cannot comment on documentation that we have not seen."

The O'Toole campaign is due to meet with the OPP to further discuss this investigation. The RCMP National Division, which investigates "sensitive, high-profile cases that could threaten Canada’s integrity and reputation" is also believed to be involved.