Brown’s lawyer urges quick resolution
Wynne is asked to expedite her lawsuit against rival
If Premier Kathleen Wynne plans to sue Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown for defamation, she should do it sooner rather than later. That was the message from Brown’s lawyer Monday in response to Wynne’s notice of libel served last week on her main political rival.
“If your client is determined to pursue a lawsuit, we should, in short order, agree on an expedited timetable for the exchange of pleadings, document production and examinations to ensure a public hearing as soon as possible,” wrotelawyer Jonathan Lisus of Lax, O’Sullivan, Lisus, Gottlieb LLP.
Wynne has threatened to file a defamation suit in court against Brown, as a provincial election looms on June 7. The premier’s lawyers say she was defamed when the Tory leader told a Queen’s Park media scrum on Sept. 12 that Ontario had “a sitting premier sitting in trial” and that Wynne “stands trial” in Sudbury.
Brown’s comments were made the day before the premier took the stand as a Crown witness in a Sudbury courtroom where Patricia Sorbara, her former deputy chief of staff, and Liberal activist Gerry Lougheed are on trial for alleged Election Act violations. Sorbara and Lougheed deny any wrongdoing and their lawyers are asking for a directed verdict of not guilty by Judge Howard Borenstein, who will rule on that request Tuesday in Sudbury.
“You have refused to retract or apologize for those defamatory statements and have made further defamatory statements about Premier Wynne,” lawyers Jack Siegel and Sheldon Inkol of Blaney McMurtry LLP told Brown on Friday.
But Lisus said Brown’s “statements were not defamatory.”
“Reasonable Ontarians understood them for exactly what they are: fair comment by the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition on the Ontario Liberal Party and this government’s ethical record in public service,” he wrote.
Lisus argued that Brown’s statements are “privileged” under the rules of parliamentary privilege, although the PC leader made his claim outside the Legislature.
“Baseless attempts to silence Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition will be ignored, full-stop,” the PC leader said in a statement.
Two Star reporters and a columnist were in his Sept.12 press scrum along with journalists from CBC, RadioCanada, The Canadian Press, the Globe and Mail, QP Briefing, Global, CP24, CTV, TFO, Queen’s Park Today, Fairchild, CHCH and Newstalk 1010.
Before the 2014 election, Wynne launched a $2-million libel action against the Tories’ then-leader, Tim Hudak, and MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) over their comments about her alleged role in former premier Dalton McGuinty’s cancellation of gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga. That matter was settled out of court in 2015.
Both Wynne’s and Brown’s legal bills are being paid by their respective parties.