Chief of staff of ex-premier guilty of destroying records
Documents on 20 hard drives related to $1-billion decision to scrap gas plants
No issues were more challenging or more dangerous to the minority Liberal government than those related to the gas plants controversy.
A former Ontario premier’s chief of staff was found guilty Friday of destroying documents related to a controversial Liberal government decision to scrap two gas plants ahead of the 2011 election.
The ruling comes just months before the province heads to the polls, with the governing Liberals fighting an uphill battle against the Opposition.
David Livingston, who served ex-Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, had been charged with attempted mischief and illegal use of a computer. His deputy, Laura Miller, faced the same charges and was found not guilty — a ruling that drew an audible gasp in the courtroom.
Judge Timothy Lipson, who presided over the case, said Livingston was a sophisticated individual who knew exactly what he was doing.
The political context around Livingston’s actions was highly relevant, Lipson said. That context was the growing pressure in 2012 and early 2013 for the Liberal government to account for the cancellation of the two plants before the 2011 election.
“No issues were more challenging or more dangerous to the minority Liberal government than those related to the gas plants controversy,” Lipson said. “This was the grim political backdrop.”
The cancellation of the plants ended up costing taxpayers more than $1 billion and caused a huge political scandal.
Livingston was openly dismissive of stern warnings and advice about his obligations to retain and produce gas-plant records a legislative committee had been demanding as it sought a contempt finding against the then-minister of energy, Lipson said.
It defies common sense and reality, Lipson said, to suggest that wholesale wiping of 20 hard drives in the outgoing premier’s office was in accordance with policy.
While he was advised about retaining records, Lipson said, Livingston was “more interested in deleting them.”
The fact that Livingston failed to warn the cabinet secretary that the wiping of 20 hard drives would be “indiscriminate” was even more serious than hiring Miller’s spouse, Peter Faist — who had no security clearance — to do the job.
“(Livingston) could not have honestly believed that he had the secretary’s authorization to do what he did,” Lipson said.
Lipson said, however, that he could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Miller knew Livingston had “fraudulently” obtained permission to access the drives, what records they had been warned to keep, and why it was so inappropriate to hire her spouse to do the wiping.
As a result, the judge said, it was possible she was unaware of the illegalities perpetrated by her boss, even though she was intimately aware of the political context in which the wiping was happening.
Miller’s lawyer said his client planned to move on from the case.
“She was not guilty of the crime,” said Scott Hutchison. “I have no doubt that she will continue to contribute to public life in Canada in the way that she has for so many years.”
Livingston — who showed little emotion as he left court — now faces the prospect of time behind bars, with a Crown prosecutor saying he’d be seeking jail time. A sentencing hearing is set for Feb. 26.
The Progressive Conservatives were quick to pounce on the decision. “It’s a sad day when a premier’s most senior official is found guilty of trying to orchestrate a coverup of the $1.1 billion gas plant scandal,” Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said in a statement. “The guilty verdict is an indictment of the 15 years of Liberal political corruption that has long been rooted in the premier’s office.”