A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered a former District of Saanich IT manager to destroy copies of internal files leaked to his son.
At hearings earlier this year, former IT manager Guy Gondor denied he provided the documents to his son, who used them as evidence in a dispute against neighbours.
The judgment is the latest development in a privacy breach dispute between Gondor and the largest municipality on Vancouver Island. Last year, the province filed a rare petition asking the B.C. Supreme Court to step in.
On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gomery ruled against Gondor, who worked at the district as an IT manager until February 2022.
“Despite Mr. Gondor’s denial, I am led to the conclusion that he was the responsible individual,” Gomery said in his ruling.
He added “inconsistencies and difficulties in Mr. Gondor’s evidence” made him skeptical of the former IT manager’s account of events.
In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for B.C.’s attorney general said the province was pleased with the court’s decision, and it would do everything it could to keep people’s personal information safe.
Under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the attorney general has the authority to apply for court orders on behalf of a public body to force people to return or destroy private information if they aren’t authorized to have it.
Hobby farm turmoil
The court heard how leaked district files were sent to Gondor’s son, Darian, who has been fighting with neighbours and the district for years to turn his Meadowbrook Ridge property into a hobby farm.
Court documents show he and his neighbours filed several bylaw complaints against each other, with up to 50 filed against Darian Gondor alone.
In March 2022, according to the judgment, Gondor sent the District of Saanich an email complaining about a neighbour cutting down trees. He attached two documents containing personal information.
According to the judgment, Gondor was not authorized to have those documents. Public dissemination of the information breached provincial privacy law.
He had previously filed freedom of information requests to get documents concerning his neighbours, according to the judgment. None of these requests produced the two documents ��— which included personal contact information, residential addresses, personal views and internal employee identification numbers.
Internal documents leaked
After the document leak came to light, the district tasked consultancy firm KPMG with investigating it.
A technical investigation by KPMG found that in December 2021 and January 2022, Guy Gondor’s login information was used to copy more than 2,500 records, including personal information, onto a laptop and USB drive assigned to him.
KPMG found in February 2022, the documents were burned onto two DVDs, alongside 34 additional records.
In March 2022, an anonymous person sent two DVDs containing confidential district records to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. The DVDs contained at least 259 records defined as personal information by provincial privacy law, and matched the documents that Darian Gondor sent to the district.
Michael Harvey, B.C.’s information and privacy commissioner, tells BC Today host Michelle Eliot that all organizations, regardless of their size, need to closely look at whether they need to collect information in the first place, and to have a plan for removal when data is no longer required.
It’s still not clear who sent the DVDs to the commissioner.
In court, Gondor said he did copy the records, while building a new laptop for use by the municipality, and that he copied them onto a USB drive to see if the laptop was working correctly.
He said he did not know the documents included personal information, and that the copies were still on a laptop and USB drive that he returned when he left his job with the district. He said he does not still have copies of these documents, and said he did not share them.
Supreme Court Justice skeptical
Gomery said in his judgment that Gondor’s account is “implausible,” and that he likely disseminated unauthorized copies of the leaked records to his son. There were no records of Gondor being asked to copy the documents for work.
During a cross-examination, Guy said he had not asked his son how Darian had obtained the leaked documents.
“If Mr. Gondor were truly innocent in this affair, I do not accept that he would be reluctant to ask his son for evidence that would tend to exonerate him,” Gomery said.
In an email to CBC News, District of Saanich spokesperson Kelsie McLeod said they “are confident that the files in question will be returned to us and that any copies will be destroyed.”