Trans Mountain, a pipeline and energy company owned by the Canadian government, says an internal investigation found a consultant it worked with had no ties to the Proud Boys, a group included on a Canadian terrorist organization list federal government stands.
“Trans Mountain has thoroughly investigated this claim and found it to be false,” a company spokesman said via email.
In a follow-up, the company said the person in question was not affiliated with the Proud Boys.
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Last February, the Canadian government added the Proud Boys to its list of terrorist organizations, saying the extremist group played a “key role” in the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol. The listing makes it a crime to provide financial assistance or other services to the Proud Boys.
The allegations follow a massive data breach by Epik, a US-based internet company known for hosting and providing online services for far-right content.
The recordings, released by online hacktivist group Anonymous, contain a wealth of personal information about some of the names behind viral campaigns promoting racism, misinformation, disinformation and other extremist views online, the Washington Post reported Sept. 21.
The Narwhal reviewed accounting records from the breach, which appear to reveal the name, personal address and phone number of a Calgary-based consultant who said on LinkedIn that he worked as a geographic information systems technologist for Trans Mountain as of November 2019. It’s unclear if the individual is still connected to Trans Mountain.
According to the leaked records, the Calgary man registered the domain ProudBoysCalgary.com on December 9, 2019. The domain is currently not active.
Trans Mountain did not immediately respond when asked if it was determined that the person actually registered that domain.
The consultant did not immediately respond to questions from The Narwhal asking about the investigation or whether he had registered the domain.
When the allegations against the adviser first surfaced on social media in September, he told The Narwhal that he could not comment as he was seeking legal advice on the matter.
“I categorically refuse any involvement and the police are involved and support me in this matter,” he said at the time.
An anonymous account on Twitter also named the man in published tweets, but later deleted those posts.
The federal government bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline and several related assets in 2018 in a multibillion-dollar deal after the previous owner, Kinder Morgan, threatened to abandon a proposed West Coast pipeline expansion project.
