Haldimand mayor denies wrongdoing in email leak

Hamilton Spectator

27-05-2025

Haldimand County Mayor
Shelley Ann Bentley
is under scrutiny after confidential emails were allegedly leaked from her office and used to target Norfolk County Mayor
Amy Martin.
Haldimand's chief administrative officer, Cathy Case, was taken aback to see politically sensitive emails about the recent
merger
of the Haldimand-Norfolk and Brantford-Brant health units turn up on social media the day after the
provincial election
in February.
Posting to a Facebook page about Haldimand politics, an anonymous user claimed a 'Norfolk staffer' had leaked emails between Martin and Haldimand officials that purported to 'prove Amy Martin's disdain for Haldimand County.'
The anonymous post was not reviewed and approved by the Facebook's page administrator until the morning after the Feb. 27 vote, which saw Martin, who ran for the Progressive Conservatives, fall short in her bid to unseat incumbent Independent MPP Bobbi Ann Brady.
Worried about an apparent leak inside Norfolk County's administration, Haldimand's CAO promptly called her Norfolk counterpart, Al Meneses. The two agreed to hire a private investigator to find the source of the breach.
Case's next move was to alert the Facebook administrator, who had the post taken down after it was live for about an hour.
Gavin Horner, a retired Toronto police detective and licensed private investigator with Glacis Security, interviewed Martin, Case and Meneses about the breach. He also talked to IT and administrative staff from both counties, along with several members of the law firm retained by Haldimand County, as one of the leaked emails was written by Haldimand's lawyer, Woody McKaig of Sullivan Mahoney LLP.
Horner also spoke with the administrator of the Facebook page and the person who allegedly made the anonymous post. Their names were redacted from the
investigator's report
made public on May 20.
By analyzing 10 photographs of the leaked documents posted to Facebook – some which showed the printed pages on a clipboard – Horner determined the emails were likely printed on Feb. 18 using a Haldimand municipal printer.
Bentley's assistant, Kendle Columbus, volunteered that she printed the emails at the request of the mayor. Columbus told Horner she thought nothing of it because Bentley dislikes reading screens and routinely asks Columbus to print documents.
As Bentley refused to meet with the investigator, citing advice from a lawyer she hired after the investigation began, Horner said he could not determine why the mayor had the confidential emails printed months after the health unit merger was complete.
It also remains unclear who took the photographs of the printouts and how those photographs got to the person who posted them to Facebook.
At the May 20 meeting of Haldimand council, Bentley defended her decision not to speak with Horner.
'I did go to a lawyer, because a private eye following you or inquiring about you is not very nice,' she said. 'I didn't know what the documents were. I didn't know what they were talking about.'
Case told councillors Horner 'never followed anyone' during his investigation.
On Monday, Bentley sent a statement to The Spectator distancing herself from the leak while arguing the documents should be made public in the name of 'transparency in government.'
'While I did not post the documents online originally, and I did not hand them to anyone who did, the reality is I do not believe the documents are, or should be, confidential,' Bentley said.
'I will leave the legal conclusions to the integrity commissioner. However, if documents as mild as these are enough to cause multiple investigations resulting in shocking waste of taxpayer dollars, I question the usefulness of the process that led us here.'
At a special meeting of Norfolk council on May 20, Martin alleged the Facebook post was meant to 'incite public distrust' and hurt her electoral chances against Brady.
'To be blunt, it was done to sway a political election to a preferred candidate,' said Martin, who called the leak 'a calculated political tactic … designed to cast suspicions and sway voters at the expense of the integrity of Norfolk County.'
As for the anonymous poster's accusation that Martin had 'disdain' for Haldimand, Martin told The Spectator she was actually trying to ensure a merger previously approved by both councils would not be derailed by Bentley's actions.
She said she invited Haldimand's mayor to join the merger committee 'as a courtesy' to ensure Haldimand would have a voice at the table. But Martin said Bentley put the merger in jeopardy by sharing complaints about the process with stakeholders in Brantford-Brant who were not on the committee.
In one of the leaked letters, Martin asked Bentley to apologize and retract her comments. When Bentley refused, Martin — who chaired the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit and now chairs the merged Grand Erie health unit — had Bentley removed from the committee.
Martin's summary of events appears consistent with the contents of the emails, which Bentley shared with The Spectator on Monday.
Bentley said she wanted the emails to be made public so residents could decide for themselves whether they merited 'multiple investigations costing thousands of taxpayer dollars, and dozens of hours of paid time from officials in both counties being wasted.'
Norfolk's mayor said she raised the concerns detailed in the leaked emails 'in an effort to insulate Haldimand County taxpayers from a significant increase to public health dollars if the loss of a potential merger went ahead.'
'Any insinuation that I wasn't looking out for Haldimand is unfounded,' Martin said. 'It is unfortunate that Haldimand needed to be protected from their own mayor.'
Horner agreed with Martin's contention that publicly posting her emails without providing any context was 'clearly aimed' at 'discrediting' her candidacy on the eve of the election.
His report includes photos and social media posts showing Bentley's public support for Brady.
'This support, by itself, does not implicate Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley as a participant in the publication of the Facebook post,' Horner said. 'It does not eliminate her either.'
It is unlikely the leaked emails had any tangible effect on the election due to the delay in posting them to Facebook. But the issue is 'so much bigger' than one election result, Martin said.
Blaming a 'Norfolk staffer' for the leak causes 'reputational harm' to 'hardworking, committed, dedicated public servants,' the mayor said, adding Bentley's choice not to speak with Horner 'should be a serious concern for anyone who values transparency.'
Bentley alleged the effort to shield the emails from public view was more about protecting Martin's image than any confidentiality concerns.
'The only remarkable thing about the documents is the way Mayor Martin acts in them,' Bentley told The Spectator. 'To me, that is the clearest indication why certain individuals fought to keep these documents out of the public eye, and to punish anyone they thought might have played a part in releasing them.'
Haldimand and Norfolk councils have each asked integrity commissioner David Boghosian to pick up the trail and determine if Bentley broke any confidentiality rules.
'We have to have an investigation to find out how the breach happened and ensure it doesn't happen again,' said Haldimand Coun. Dan Lawrence.
Unlike a private investigator, the integrity commissioner has subpoena power and can compel subjects to answer questions.
Bentley herself voted to bring in Boghosian to probe the leak, telling The Spectator she would willingly take part in an 'open and unbiased' investigation led by the integrity commissioner.
Horner's investigation cost $10,800, which will be split between the two counties. Based on past investigations, engaging the integrity commissioner could cost taxpayers significantly more.
But Meneses, Norfolk's CAO, said rebuilding residents' trust in their public institutions is 'paramount to our society and to democracy.'
'In the absence of that trust, the system starts to fail,' he said.