Information & Ethics Committee on Dec. 11th, 2018

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

What call centre was used to make those calls?

[Ryan O'Connor]

We used a vendor.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

What was the name of the vendor?

[Ryan O'Connor]

That's proprietary.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

The name of the vendor is proprietary.

[Ryan O'Connor]

We don't disclose the names of our vendors. We're not required by law to do so. That's a commercial matter.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

You're refusing a question at a parliamentary committee.

How did you obtain 2.5 million phone numbers?

[Ryan O'Connor]

The vendor utilized a list that it had.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay. So you contracted an undisclosed vendor to call 2.5 million people.

What question did you ask?

[Ryan O'Connor]

Do you mean in terms of the calling?

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

No, something else I wasn't asking about.

[Ryan O'Connor]

Sorry, could you say that again?

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Yes, of course it's about the phone calls that were made. What questions were asked?

[Ryan O'Connor]

I don't understand why you are being so facetious. I didn't hear what you said.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I'm not getting particularly helpful answers, Mr. O'Connor.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Ballingall stated he has no clue how Ontario Proud received the phone numbers from the Canadian Numbering Administrator. Do you know anything about that?

[Ryan O'Connor]

Yes, the vendor made the phone calls on our behalf—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

So when Mr. Ballingall said he had no clue—

[Ryan O'Connor]

We're not privy to the exact means by which those numbers were procured.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

So, 2.5 million phone calls were made, and a million text messages were sent. Presumably a number of people, maybe several hundred thousand, whatever the number might be—I'm sure you don't know—answered those phone calls and those text messages and provided information to Ontario Proud. So Ontario Proud holds that information about individuals. Is that correct?

[Ryan O'Connor]

The vendor holds that information, yes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

That's over and above the 400,000 Facebook followers and the 155,000 emails. Is that correct?

[Ryan O'Connor]

Yes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

How many Canadians does Ontario Proud hold personal information about?

[Ryan O'Connor]

Let's be clear: We don't necessarily have those individuals' names, so I'm not saying that.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

You might.