Staffer’s social media was hacked before antisemitic post: Nova Scotia PC Party

The Nova Scotia Premier’s office says a member of the PC Party has been “swiftly removed” after allegedly accessing a staffer’s social media account and posting an offensive post.

At issue is a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that was posted Monday on Nargis Demolitor’s account. Demolitor is a special adviser to the province’s minister of Labour, Skills and Immigration.

The Liberal party provided media with a screenshot of the post, which states in part, “Israel must stop being the Nazi’s (sic) of 21st century.” A photo on the post shows protesters holding a sign with the words, “ethnic cleansing + genocide … sound familiar?” and a drawing of a swastika.

While that post has since been deleted, a new post on Tuesday morning states, “Yesterday, my account was hacked, information was tweeted without my knowledge. I apologize if anyone was offended!”

At the legislature Tuesday, Liberal Leader Zach Churchill brought up the post during question period, calling it a “horrifically antisemitic statement.”

“This is unacceptable for any person to tweet, but is especially shameful coming from the special adviser to the Minister of Immigration,” Churchill said.

Deputy Premier Allan MacMaster told the House he only heard about the incident that day, and that an investigation by the party was taking place.

“On behalf of the premier, we want to see more details. We want to investigate what actually happened,” said MacMaster.

Premier Tim Houston’s press secretary, Meagan Byrd, confirmed Tuesday evening that an investigation “uncovered evidence that someone did access (DeMolitor’s) account without authorization.”

“We believe we have identified that person. They were a party member but they were swiftly removed from the PC Party. The individual was not an employee of the Party, Caucus or government,” Byrd wrote in an email.

“We have also suggested that Ms. DeMolitor contact the authorities.”

After question period, Deputy Premier MacMaster told reporters the post was “unacceptable” and an “awful thing to say.”

“I understand both the government is investigating it and the PC Party office is investigating it because the individual is employed with the caucus office,” said MacMaster.

“The other issue is, was it a government account or was it a personal account? Because in both cases will be investigated but if it’s a government account, there has to be following a government policy, if it’s a personal account, well, that could be a different issue.”

However, the opposition parties say the investigation should be done by an independent body, such as the privacy officer or the RCMP.

“I think if the PCs are in charge of this investigation, they’re just going to want to cover their own arses and I don’t know if we can trust what the outcome of that investigation’s going to be,” said Liberal Leader Churchill.

He added it doesn’t matter that the post was on a private account, and not an official PC Party account.

“We can’t have any antisemitic sentiment being expressed particularly at a time after a horrendous terrorist attack,” said Churchill.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters she was unconvinced government would take appropriate action, and that there was a “pattern” in the PC Party.

A staffer in Houston’s office retweeted a post this year that referenced the “Reich” after a byelection in the riding of Preston, and later apologized. In 2021, the premier fired a political staffer after he was made aware of “racist” social media comments about Liberal MLA Angela Simmonds, who is Black.

“This is in the context of extraordinarily heightened tensions in the Middle East, and right here in Nova Scotia with all kinds of communities who are paralyzed, really, with fear for what is happening to friends and loved ones and communities,” said Chender on Tuesday.

“I have spoken before about being the grandchild of Holocaust survivors and I think any analogy to the Holocaust or the perpetrator of the Holocaust is misplaced and is ill-informed and hurtful and wrong, frankly.”