VANCOUVER, B.C. – On September 14th, 2022, the Green Party of Vancouver Board of Directors voted to withdraw the Party’s endorsement of Park Candidate Liam Menard. The decision was made after a meeting of the Board where Menard admitted to the unauthorized handling and use of the Green Party of Vancouver’s supporters’ contact information.

The Party moved swiftly to investigate and subsequently withdrew its endorsement from Park Board Candidate Liam Menard as soon as it became apparent that data was used in a way that contravened Green Party values, its candidate agreement, and the law.

“Greens are 100% committed to transparency, our supporters’ privacy and the law,” said Green City Councillor Pete Fry. “The Party holds its endorsed candidates and elected officials to an extremely high ethical standard and has zero tolerance for unlawful and unethical actions. We deeply regret that our previously endorsed Candidate violated our trust and the trust of our supporters. We will conduct a review to understand what we can do to better protect our supporters’ privacy.”

Once the facts were determined, the Green Party of Vancouver emailed its complete contact list to warn them of the possible misuse and mishandling of private information. 

“The Chair of our Board informed our entire supporter list as soon as it was clear that their information may have been used in a way that contravened our values, their privacy rights, and the law.”

“Liam has broken his colleagues’, the Party’s and the public's trust,” continued Fry.  “I was extremely disappointed when I was informed of the situation, but applaud the Board for acting swiftly according to our ethics and values.

“Our city is facing serious challenges. Voters and the Public need to trust their elected officials to act with transparency and integrity. As we continue our campaign, we are calling on all candidates to recognize that campaigning honestly and fairly is critical to tackling the issues voters want to see action on.”

The Green Party of Vancouver Board has reason to believe that some or all of its list is in the possession of the Progress Vancouver, Mark Marrisen campaign and we are calling on the Progress campaign to immediately cease all campaign communications until the matter has been investigated and the list has been purged.

“I sincerely hope that Marissen and the Progress campaign agree to calls for a communication halt until this matter has been resolved.”

The Green Party is prepared to engage with the appropriate authorities and is fully committed to cooperating with any forthcoming investigations.

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