What’s certain is a plot dubbed "Operation Peacock" to entrap former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi into taking illegal Russian money failed..“I was told Nenshi was corrupt and certain councillors were corrupt and they’d accept bribes, so I developed a strategy,” said political fixer David Wallace..“I was told all these people were accepting bribes and destroying the city of Calgary.”.Wallace’s efforts to first uncover corruption on Nenshi, followed by a plan to lure him in by insinuating that copious Russian cash was available, went nowhere..“Every deep dive I did into every accusation levelled against him (Nenshi) there was nothing there but smoke. There was no hard proof. Nothing. Nenshi was a very personable guy. I thought he was a bit of a wingnut. But I couldn’t find the dirt. Just smoke, no fire.”. David WallaceDavid Wallace .Where it gets murky is the extent of the involvement of people who parachuted Ontario’s Wallace into Calgary to find dirt on Nenshi and others..Two of several names keep surfacing — Chad Hallman and Prem Singh..Hallman, who formerly worked with the Alberta government, is the son of longtime political strategist Alan Hallman..Singh is a former conservative fundraiser and lobbyist..Both told the Western Standard they were bit players only in an initial plan hatched by a group of concerned Calgarians to collect dirt on suspect politicians and city officials. The plan manifested into a scheme devised by Wallace to entrap them..Wallace backed up both their claims..However, what started out as an allegedly simple attempt to make connections is now an exercise in finger-pointing. Sifting through the rubble to get at what part anyone played in the plot is no easy task..Wallace claims he was first contacted by Hallman. Hallman claims Wallace first reached out to him. Neither dispute that Hallman contacted Singh to help Wallace — but they have different takes on the extent of her involvement, which both she and Wallace insisted was minimal..The entire affair might have been swept under the carpet but for an expose by CanadaLand after months of investigation in which Wallace spilled the beans..Wallace told the Western Standard he was inspired to come clean because of another job he was hired for that was “a bridge too far” and he’s done with “fixing.” But that’s a story for another day..Hallman doesn’t buy it..“I don’t think he’s cleansing his conscience,” said Hallman. “David is a liar … I think that what’s in the public record demonstrably proves he’s a liar. There may be grains of truth to some things he says, but by and large I don’t think he’s a credible person or credible source.”.Hallman said Wallace reached out to him in late 2017, or early 2018..“He asked if I thought there was foreign interference in Ontario politics. He knew about me because at the time if you Googled me, all you would find was a report I worked on with a former MP and senator that was intended to expose the Tides Foundation and the flow of money from the United States into Canadian anti-pipeline activities… He reached out trying to hook me on that. Then he just wanted to stay in touch.”.“I considered him credible in a sense, not necessarily a credible person, but I knew he had credible information.”.“Then we get talking … I asked him if he had any dirt on Calgary City Council, to which he responded — and I now know in hindsight he was just trying to hook me and was trying to find something I was interested in. He told me he had demonstrable proof that could land Mayor Nenshi in jail quickly.”.“If someone like that tells you they’ve got evidence that your mayor is corrupt, you’re going to listen.”.“It wasn’t just a political opportunity. It was, I think, my duty as a citizen, as a political operative, to do something with that.”.Hallman said he then contacted Singh who was a friend at the time..“She was running a PAC called Save Calgary, which was running negative ads on Calgary council candidates, the mayor, doing general civic awareness.”.“She was very interested. She noted she could raise the money for him. He said he would need $10,000 plus some expenses and a few days in Calgary just to collect all of his evidence.”. Prem SinghPrem Singh .“After I introduced him to Prem, my hands were washed of it. I didn’t know anything about it for at least a year.”.Wallace confirmed after the initial introduction, Hallman exited..“From that point on, he had no involvement. That's true. But the person who originally suggested the job and put together the investor people was Chad Hallman.”.“It is true that Chad Hallman recruited me then handed me off. But he can’t duck out of the fact he hired me and brought me there,” claimed Wallace..Hallman said it remains to be seen if his reputation has been tarnished by getting “dragged into it unfairly.”.“I know that I’ve done nothing wrong.”.“What I’m frustrated about is the way it is being reported is as if I was part of the plot to entrap Mayor Nenshi by wearing a wire and getting him to accept illegal Russian money. I had nothing to do with it.”.“The role I served was an introduction to someone who was able to help cover his expenses so that he could expose information that proved Nenshi was corrupt. There was no entrapment in my mind with that. I was led to believe he already had information.”.Hallman then pointed a finger at Singh..“I think Prem Singh has really flown under the radar with this. She was the one that was working with Wallace for months on this. Neither me or my dad had any knowledge on that.”.Wallace agreed Hallman senior was not a player..“I was asked about it months later by Alan Hallman because he retained me for several other jobs. But he was never really involved. He didn’t have any stake in the game, at least to my knowledge … he never had any involvement in the planning.”.Alan Hallman said his son was “targeted” by Wallace.. Allan HallmanAllan Hallman .“You’re talking a 20-year-old kid, right, at the time. This was 2018 when Wallace made contact with my son first when he was going to the University of Toronto.”.“David took advantage of his youth and engaged Chad in conversation over text and Chad introduced him to Prem Singh. And that was the end of the story.”.“She was a bit player in politics a number of years ago. I think that’s why originally Chad introduced David to Prem.”.Wallace insisted Singh’s role in the affair amounted to little more than chauffeuring him around..“Prem Singh, all she did pick me up from the airport, arrange my travel and then she introduced me to the people. She waited outside most of the time when I talk to them.”.“Prem didn’t know the actual specifics of the plan. She knew vague, broad strokes that I was going to set up a scenario that if they were corrupt, they would be caught.”.“I’m just sick of people trying to set this woman up. I don’t understand the obsession with her.”.Singh also insisted her role was minimal..“I’m not involved in whatever David’s doing. My role was I introduced him, and I drove him and I picked him up, arranged stuff for him to stay. That was it. I would drop him off.”.“I didn’t raise any money for him. There was no fundraising for this.”.She said Wallace’s fees were paid by the Calgarians he met with..“This is so awful. I’m so sick of it. I haven’t been involved in politics for a couple of years. All of the work I’ve done for this Frankenstein shit of a party. Look at what they’ve done to the province. And this is the thanks I get.”.Meanwhile, Chad Hallman alleged Wallace’s conscience cleansing is just another money-making scheme..“I think that at this point he’s probably made the calculation that he can make more money by crowdfunding, trying to get a book deal and really selling this on social media…”.“He’s talked about a book deal before. He is actively crowdfunding on GoFundMe. There is a series of Twitter accounts both anonymous and named that have pushed that crowdfunding for him.”.Wallace denied both charges..“I’m not writing any f***ing book with anybody. I’m not a writer. And crowdfund — I put up a GoFundMe. You know what I got out of it? Four grand. I shut it down. You know what they did, and this has been proven, they tried to set up crowdfunding under my name to undermine me. There is no crowdfund.”.Contrary to his claim, Wallace’s GoFundMe account has been inactive for at least a month, but it has not yet been shut down. Only $4,780 has been pledged to meet a $20,000 goal..“I’m living in a hovel. I don’t have anything.”.“These guys are shitty Keystone criminals. They can’t even set somebody up properly.”.“I gave up hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to be poor and shunned and never able to work again. That’s the difference between me and these pricks … I actually brought this all to light and turned myself in because there’s a lot of dangerous people there that need to be shut down before someone gets hurt.”
