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“I believe these attacks … were led by people who want to silence my voice and our campaign”
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August 24, 2022 • 5 hours ago • 3 minutes read • 30 comments Chestermere-Rocky View MLA Leela Aheer speaks to media at the McDougall Center in Calgary on May 19, 2022. Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia
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A candidate in the UCP leadership race says she won’t back down after hackers breached her private and public Facebook pages and posted criminal material on them.
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Leela Aheer said she was shocked to wake up on Tuesday morning to reports that her accounts had been hacked and that Facebook had flagged several posts on the pages for violating their “child nudity and sexual exploitation” standards.
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RCMP in Chestermere confirmed Wednesday that an investigation into the incident has been launched, but said no further details could be shared yet. Aheer said he is working with the RCMP’s Victim Services Unit and thanked the Mounties for their assistance.
“I believe that these attacks on my account are caused by people who want to silence my voice and our campaign,” an emotional Ahir told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Whoever carried out this attack on me and my family, you will not win. I’m not going back down.”
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Aheer said he believed the hack was targeted, but said he didn’t think it originated from another campaign.
The campaign said it is taking extra precautions, both for Aheer’s in-person events and to protect her social media accounts.
The leadership candidate said he believes the incident transcends the ongoing political race.
“The only impact it should have is on us as a society. How do we want to move forward?” Ahir said. “This is not anyone’s vision for Alberta. So we take a moment to take a collective stand, to stand up to the people who would do such things.
Political scientist Dwayne Bratt of Mount Royal University agreed, saying the issue was “not right or left, but right or wrong.”
He said it followed a trend of vicious, public attacks on female politicians and journalists that cut across party lines.
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“It doesn’t matter if you’re Rachel Notley or Michelle Rempel Garner. It doesn’t matter if you’re Shannon Phillips or if you’re Leela Ayer. … It’s a trend and it seems to be getting worse,” Bratt said.
“There’s a harnessing of that anger, and I think that’s dangerous, and it’s just a further escalation of that.”
Aheer is the United Conservative Party MLA representing the riding of Chestermere-Strathmore. She was first elected with the Wildrose Party in 2015 and served as Alberta’s Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and the Status of Women for two years starting in 2019. She was ousted shortly after openly criticizing Premier Jason Kenney .
She is one of seven candidates vying to replace Kenny as UCP leader. Brian Jean, Todd Lowen, Rajan Sawney, Rebecca Schultz, Danielle Smith and Travis Toews are also vying for the party leadership.
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Sawney tweeted in support of Aheer Wednesday, calling the attack unacceptable and adding: “Being a woman in politics is not easy.”
AHS says no patient data was accessed in Facebook breach
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Alberta health authorities were hit by their own hack.
Shortly after 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Alberta Health Services EMS Facebook page began broadcasting a live stream showing a loop of someone playing the online video game Dota 2. The stream lasted for nearly four hours.
Officials were trying to regain control of the page, which was followed by about 11,000 people on Wednesday.
“We are actively working with Facebook to help shut down the page as a short-term solution,” AHS said in a statement. “We are also working to determine the root cause and long-term solutions to remove offending content and regain control of the page.”
The site is only used to share public education and emergency medical information, AHS said, adding that no patient information was breached. The health authority does not store patient information on any social media platform.
jherring@postmedia.com
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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