OTTAWA — When the Ontario Provincial Police began using Palantir Technologies’s controversial Gotham database product in 2015, it was an “operational issue” and didn’t cross the desk of the minister responsible for them, said a spokesperson for that minister, Ottawa politician Yasir Naqvi.

The Logic revealed in the fall that the OPP has had a contract with U.S.-based Palantir for its “analytical platform,” after pursuing details through access-to-information law for nearly a year. After publication, the Ontario government supplied one additional detail: the Palantir contract began on June 1, 2015.

Naqvi is now a federal Liberal MP and parliamentary secretary to Bill Blair, the emergency preparedness minister. He’s also contemplating a run for the provincial party leadership.