Beacon-Hill Cyrville Ward councillor admits to mistakenly leaking confidential memo

Beacon-Hill Cyrville Ward City Councillor Tim Tierney is apologizing to city council for sending a confidential City of Ottawa memo, regarding a city lawsuit in relation to the Rideau Street sinkhole, to a local journalist. 

“I want council to understand that I take full responsibility, but I also want them to know that it was due to the carelessness on my part and it was not an intentional breach,” he explained at a meeting, Wednesday, June 9. 

“I am truly sorry and sincerely apologize,” Tierney continued. “I can't change what happened, but I can commit to you to being much more careful when email documents to outside sources and I will never breach the city's confidentiality agreements again.” 

Tierney says he had accidentally included the confidential memo in a buddle of documents that was sent to Jon Willing at the Ottawa Citizen regarding an un-related public issue that he was investigating. 

Council accepted Tierney's apology by passing a new motion asking the city's integrity commissioner to cease its investigation. 

Mayor Jim Watson says the core of the investigation was about finding the person responsible and now that person has come forward.