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While investigating allegations of corruption at Calgary city hall, police say they uncovered text messages sent by former councillor Sean Chu to a man now accused of offering money for council votes in which Chu said to “keep conversations to his personal phone” because his work phone was “subject to Freedom of Information” disclosure.
The revelation comes from an affidavit sworn by Det. Matt White, who is leading the investigation, which was launched last summer following a council vote on July 16.
The vote related to a proposed development in Bankview which, if successful, would allow for the construction of five townhouse buildings to be constructed along 26th Avenue S.W.
That vote initially ended in a tie, but following a successful reconsideration motion put forward by Chu, who then changed his vote, the re-vote passed.
Police have executed several search warrants in connection with the investigation and seized the cellphones and other electronic devices of a number of people.
But investigators have been unable to unlock four of those phones.
‘Evidence of the offences’
Calgary Police Service lawyer Doug Taylor filed an application asking Justice Allan Fradsham to allow investigators to keep the cellphones for an additional nine months.
Three of the phones that remain inaccessible to police belong to Chu, former mayor Jyoti Gondek and Nathan Robb, co-founder of Oldstreet, the developer of the proposed Bankview project. The fourth is a local architect on the project who did not show up at court for the police application.
The court documents filed as part of CPS’s application reveal the corruption investigation centres around text message conversations found on the cellphone of David White, the founder of CivicWorks, a planning consultant who was guiding Oldstreet through the land-use bylaw amendment application.
Investigators were able to search White’s cellphone which, according to the affidavits, “yielded evidence of the offences.”
Chu’s texts with White
Both David White’s lawyer, Allan Fay, and Robb’s lawyer, Greg Dunn, declined to comment on the allegations contained in the affidavits.
None of the allegations made in the police affidavits have been proven in court. No one has been charged in connection with the investigation.
Police say they found messages on David White’s phone that show Chu “had been approached in the hopes of securing a reconsideration motion related to the development.”
“Chu advised David White to keep conversations to his personal phone as his work phone would be subject to Freedom of Information requests,” reads lead investigator Matt White’s affidavit.
Det. White is a Calgary Police Service officer but has been seconded to the RCMP for the investigation.
‘Securing a reconsideration motion’
Court documents also suggest Robb had “participated in a conversation regarding approaching councillors in the hopes of securing a reconsideration motion.”
“In this conversation, political campaign donations in excess of the maximum allowed were offered in exchange for introducing the motion,” reads the document.
In relation to Gondek’s involvement, police say they determined that she “provided guidance to [David] White on a tactic to approach another councillor in an effort to secure a reconsideration motion,” reads the court document.
Gondek was absent for the first vote but returned in time to vote in favour of the development in the second round.
‘Just a hope’
As part of the police application to keep the phones, Gondek’s lawyer was permitted to question Det. White, who testified that investigators have no plans or timeline as to how they will access them.
Det. White confirmed he is relying on “hope and the idea that technology is constantly evolving.”
Police are hoping that a company called Cellebrite will develop the technology to “brute force” newer model iPhones. Brute force is a process of trying every possible password on a device until the correct passcode is found. The process can take between a few minutes to more than 10 years.
“You don’t have a scintilla of evidence that Cellebrite is even working on this issue,” argued Shamsher Kothari, Chu’s lawyer.
“This is just a hope.”
