[LINK] "Liberal leader Bob Rae fires staffer behind Vikileaks attack on Vic Toews"

[rfmcdonald]

And so the Vikileaks saga comes to an end ... for now?

A Liberal staffer has resigned after being discovered as the creator of an anonymous Twitter account that revealed details of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ divorce proceedings.

Liberal interim leader Bob Rae apologized to Toews in the Commons after Adam Carroll left his job in the party’s research bureau Monday because of the social media leaks.

Conservatives initially blamed the NDP when the anonymous Twitter account targeting Toews sparked an uproar in mid-February. But an investigation by the House of Commons Speaker’s office traced the source to the Liberals.

Rae said Carroll, an experienced Parliament Hill aide who had done work for Liberals MPs over the years, was responsible for the cyber-attack on Toews. The Commons’ clerk alerted Liberal officials who in turn notified Rae on Sunday. In a meeting Monday morning, Carroll offered his resignation and Rae said he accepted. “He was extremely apologetic. He’s a perfectly nice, hard-working individual who showed a real error in judgment,” Rae said.

Rae said Carroll had been angered by Conservative remarks likening political opponents to Hitler and child pornographers.

“We all agreed that was no excuse,” Rae said. “Nastiness begets nastiness. At some point you have to stop.”

The revelation and apology took the air out of the Liberal attack on alleged dirty election campaign tricks by the Conservatives.

[. . .]

While accepting Rae’s apology, Toews said Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer should look into the fact that other Liberals may have referred people to the Vikileaks30 account. Toews was probably referring to Liberal MP Justin Trudeau’s tweets when the Vikileaks uproar broke.

On Monday, Trudeau penned a new tweet saying, “Appalled to find out Vikileaks came from us Liberals. Yes, I tweeted about it, but I did not endorse it. Personal attacks are always wrong.”

Vikileaks30 popped up in response to Bill C-30, the Conservatives’ online surveillance legislation that has prompted an outpouring of concern about potential privacy issues for Internet users.

“Vic wants to know about you. Let’s get to know Vic,” the author of the anonymous Twitter account noted. Vikileaks then put up a string of tweets about Toews, including quotations from his divorce proceedings. The account was closed earlier this month.