Premier sues Opposition leader for defamation

TORONTO — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne sued the Opposition leader for defamation Monday, less than six months away from the June provincial election.

The legal action stems from comments Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown made in September, a day before Wynne testified as a witness at a trial in Sudbury involving two provincial Liberals facing Election Act bribery charges.

Brown told reporters he hoped Wynne would give answers about the scandal “maybe when she stands trial” and went on to describe her as a “sitting premier, sitting in trial.” The premier was not on trial and had waived parliamentary privilege in order to testify as a witness.

The Tory leader refused to apologize for the statements saying he would “ignore her baseless legal threat.” His lawyer has said the statements were not defamatory.

Wynne’s legal team filed a statement of claim in court Monday that seeks $100,000 in general, aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages. Brown’s statements harmed Wynne’s reputation, they wrote.

“The deliberate, malicious conduct of the defendant in publishing the defamatory statements is part of an ongoing campaign engineered by the defendant and others to harm the plaintiff ’s reputation,” Wynne’s lawyers wrote.

“The defendant’s egregious misconduct in publishing statements that he knew to be false, his ongoing refusal to retract these false statements, and his high-handed and oppressive conduct in stating to media and directly to the world at large that the plaintiff ’s complaints were baseless and would be ignored, all justify an award of aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages against the defendant.”

Brown has not yet filed a statement of defence.