Another blight on Ontario’s Liberals

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) decision to lay criminal charges against a Liberal party operative over February’s byelection in Sudbury is Premier Kathleen Wynne’s refusal to accept the seriousness of the affair.

When the OPP confirmed Thursday it had lodged two counts against Gerry Lougheed Jr., a Liberal fundraiser and party activist, party leaders met questions in the legislature with mockery and evasion. Confronted by New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson, Deputy Premier Deb Matthews responded by calling him “Inspector Clouseau” and exulting that Wynne’s deputy chief of staff, Pat Sorbara, had not also been charged. Wynne herself noted halfheartedly that “of course it’s a serious situation,” but added: “I never believed my staff did anything wrong.” She had previously insisted she would not fire Sorbara unless she was charged with a criminal offence.

Perhaps the premier is in need of a refresher course on the facts. A byelection was called last February in the riding of Sudbury after its former NDP member, just months into the job, resigned his seat. The Liberal candidate in the previous general election, Andrew Olivier, wanted to run again but was dropped by Wynne in favour of an NDP MP who was willing to defect to the Liberals. To soften the blow, Sorbara and Lougheed telephoned Olivier to dangle offers of alternative posts if he’d go quietly.

When Olivier instead released tapes of the calls, a storm broke over the seeming attempt to buy him off. An investigation by Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa concluded that both Sorbara and Lougheed appeared to have broken bribery rules, a finding he called “unprecedented.” The matter was forwarded to the OPP, which brought in an outside prosecutor to avoid any appearance of conflict, leading to Thursday’s charges against Lougheed: one count of unlawfully influencing or negotiating appointments, a second of counselling an offence not committed. (Police would not say why Lougheed was charged and Sorbara wasn’t.)

Wynne’s position throughout has been to reject any suggestion of impropriety. The day after Essensa’s report she issued a statement insisting she had decided well before the byelection that Olivier would not be the Liberal candidate. Therefore any offers made to him could not be considered an attempt to, uh, persuade him to stand down. “Any suggestion that anything was offered in exchange for any action,” she said, “is false.” As for Sorbara, the premier said she was “a seasoned professional and a woman of integrity” who would keep her job unless charged with a crime. Lougheed wasn’t mentioned, but Liberal aides maintained that, as he wasn’t formally employed by the party, he wasn’t their responsibility — and wasn’t speaking for Wynne.

These assertions are systematically undermined by the recorded calls. Lougheed, a well-known local Liberal and chairman of the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board, states categorically that, “I come to you on behalf of the premier,” he asserts that “the premier wants to talk to you,” and that “they would like to present to you options in terms of appointments, jobs, whatever, that you and her and Pat Sorbara could talk about it.”

Someone seems to have given Lougheed the impression he was speaking for Wynne. Yet when asked in the legislature who it might have been, Wynne ducked the question. Her refusal to accept the seriousness of this affair, coupled with her fellow Liberals’ attempt to joke their way out of the mess, is a reminder of just how low this government sets the bar for actions by its staff and supporters: Anything less than a proven criminal offence is shrugged off as trivial.

This is, after all, not the first time we’ve been here. Under former premier Dalton McGuinty, the Liberals used their majority to silence questions about their abrupt election-eve cancellation of two power plants at a cost of $1.2 billion, later issuing a whitewashed report exonerating themselves — and finding themselves under investigation by the OPP over deleted emails discussing the strategy. They appear to be trying the same approach to the Sudbury scandal: stonewall, mock the opposition, complain of being victimized.

It won’t wash. The stain from Sudbury is already large, and will only spread the longer the premier pretends not to see it.