Tapes talk opens trial
Politicians’ bribery trial underway
The bribery trial of Ontario Liberals Gerry Lougheed and Pat Sorbara kicked off on Thursday in Sudbury, with Andrew Olivier explaining why he records most of his conversations.
But that didn’t explain why he doesn’t tell people he’s recording, writes Postmedia’s Chris Selley — in December 2014, for example, when Lougheed and Sorbara allegedly plied the would-be candidate with offers of jobs and appointments to abandon his campaign for the nomination in the 2015 Sudbury byelection and allow Glenn Thibeault, then the local New Democrat MP, to cross the floor to open arms and happy faces.
Most of it we had heard before, writes Selley, but the day did feature a bit of a bombshell: a hitherto undiscovered recording.
It is not entirely clear why Andrew Olivier records most all of his conversations. He is quadriplegic; reviewing discussions after the fact helps him take note of important information, he told a small, subdued courtroom in Sudbury on Thursday, as the bribery trial of Ontario Liberal operatives Gerry Lougheed and Pat Sorbara kicked off.
That doesn’t explain why he doesn’t tell people he’s recording — in December 2014, for example, when Lougheed and Sorbara allegedly plied Olivier with offers of jobs and appointments to abandon his highly plausible campaign for the nomination in the 2015 Sudbury byelection and allow Glenn Thibeault, then the local New Democrat MP, to cross the floor to open arms and happy faces.
Lougheed was full of beans at the defection. “When this gets out in the media, this’ll be huge,” he said, swearing Olivier to secrecy. “This is like a tidal wave.” He told Olivier that the premier wanted to chat about what stepping aside could mean for his future. “Is there … an appointment, are you gonna let me head up a commission?” he suggested Olivier ask. “What are you giving me, for me to step down, that is worthwhile?”
We would all dearly love to hear Olivier’s conversation with Wynne, but he had a good explanation on Thursday for not recording it: he was stuck in an elevator at the time.
In an amusingly convoluted “tennis match” conversation, as Olivier put it, Sorbara first tried to sway Olivier with flattery and appeals to party loyalty but eventually, when Olivier said he was still determined to run and thought a contested nomination would be best for the party, she resorted to more mercenary tactics. There could be “a fulltime or a part-time job in a constit(uency) office,” she mused — Thibeault’s constituency office, that is — or “appointments, supports, or commissions.”
Olivier’s reason for not recording his subsequent conversation with Thibeault was rather less convincing: he didn’t expect the soon-to-be MPP and Energy Minister to say anything worth writing down later, he told Crown prosecutor Vern Brewer. Really?
Most of this we had heard before, in any event; Thursday was simply an interesting opportunity to watch the interested parties listen to the damning testimony in person. The day did feature a bit of a bombshell, however: a hitherto undiscovered second recorded conversation between Sorbara and Olivier, recorded on Nov. 23, 2014.
NDP MPP Joe Cimino, who had beaten Olivier in the 2014 general election by just 980 votes, had suddenly resigned. Olivier had publicly seized on this as an opportunity to make up the difference and then some. And Sorbara, while planning a trip to Sudbury to meet with Olivier, stressed he shouldn’t count his chickens. The 2014 Liberal campaign in Sudbury had been a bit of a shambles: infighting, backbiting. They had to get this right, Sorbara stressed; Wynne was “desperate in a good way” to win the riding back.
The seemingly simple fact that Olivier wasn’t at any point the official Liberal candidate is key to the twopronged defence.
Prong one: Michael Lacy, counsel for Lougheed, and Brian Greenspan, counsel for Sorbara, contend Olivier was not a “candidate” as defined by the Election Act. He was, rather, vying to become a candidate in a process governed by the Ontario Liberal Party’s constitution. The new tape anchors this prong: “You are the past candidate, but you’re not the current candidate yet,” Sorbara told Olivier.
Prong two: It was or should have been clear, not least to Olivier and not least from his unrecorded phone call with Wynne, that Thibeault would be the candidate. Therefore there was no way anyone could bribe Olivier to drop out, because his non-candidacy was assured, one way or the other. “There was never going to be a contested nomination process in this riding for that byelection,” Lacy said in his opening statement. “Olivier’s wishful thinking in that regard does not transform him into a candidate.”
Neither prong strikes me as very convincing. If successful, it’s not a defence that will leave anyone smelling of roses. Whatever Justice H.J. Borenstein of the Ontario Court of Justice decides, the tapes say what they say: jobs and appointments were on offer if Olivier was willing to do, or not do … something. Whatever the reason, whatever the outcome, thank goodness Olivier made those tapes. We can only wish he made more.
The trial continues Friday, and for up to 17 additional days ending Oct. 30. Sorbara faces an additional charge of trying to induce Thibeault to become the Liberal candidate. Premier Wynne testifies Wednesday. Thibeault is the last witness on the prosecution’s list of 17.
IF SUCCESSFUL, IT’S NOT A DEFENCE THAT WILL LEAVE ANYONE SMELLING OF ROSES.