Ontario Tories slam lawyer’s social media posts
One of Brown’s sex misconduct accusers named
There was more dramatic fallout Thursday from the Ontario Conservative party’s leadership upheaval, as the party said it fired a firm whose lawyer publicly named and criticized one of former l eader Patrick Brown’s sexual misconduct accusers.
Joseph Villeneuve, who acted for the Tories in at least one court case, posted a number of comments and articles on Facebook questioning the credibility of a woman who says Brown forced himself on her when she was a teenager, and of the TV network that first reported the charges.
Brown resigned over the issue, but has strenuously denied the accusations.
“I see a pattern of innuendo and allegations masquerading as truth despite no court proceedings!” Villeneuve wrote on Facebook this week.
He also made thinly veiled criticisms of the party he and his firm represented, saying people should demand Brown’s reinstatement as leader or else “do not vote PC.”
Villeneuve is a friend and former classmate of the exleader’s at the University of Windsor law school.
Alykhan Velshi, chief of staff to interim leader Vic Fedeli, called the senior partner in Villeneuve’s firm — Zuber and Company — “within minutes” of learning about the Facebook posts Thursday, announcing he was cancelling the firm’s retainer, a Conservative source said.
The party said it would also forward the social- media entries to the Law Society of Upper Canada, which regulates lawyers in the province.
“This is vile,” a party spokesperson, asking not to be named, said about the posts. “Zero tolerance means zero tolerance.”
But Villeneuve said he had already quit the party work days ago, and argued he was raising important issues of journalistic ethics.
Dave Zuber, the firm’s founder, said he could not comment on any client, former or current.
Brown resigned as leader last week in response to CTV’s story about two women who allege he made inappropriate sexual advances toward them when they were teenagers and he was an MP.
Fedeli took over as interim leader and on Tuesday announced he would not seek the permanent job, focusing instead on rooting out “rot” within the party.
Any suggestion that someone even peripherally connected to Fedeli’s office had attacked an alleged victim could undermine the Tories’ attempts to put the affair behind them.
But Villeneuve was unapologetic about his socialmedia activity Thursday and challenged the party’s version of events, saying he had resigned as a Conservative lawyer “many days ago.”
He said one of his concerns is that the woman was not identified by CTV.
“If ( she) wished to have anonymity, and was deemed deserving of it, she should have brought her claims to court ( seeking a publication ban) rather than trying to insulate herself from fair scrutiny by media ambush,” Villeneuve said in an email i nter view. “Anyone with a meritorious complaint should seek j ustice not fame.”
He also referred to reports that the woman is a former work colleague and friend of Rachel Aiello, one of the CTV reporters.
“I think the public deserves to know when a reporter is in a close relationship with an anonymous source,” he said. “It doesn’t pass the smell test … Frankly, there seems to be an intentional or negligent attempt to mislead about the fact they were acquainted for years before this disclosure. Fairness dictates that a disclaimer should’ve been made.”
CTV News representatives could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, a Conservative spokesperson insisted that Villeneuve’s firm, Zuber and Company, was on retainer as “counsel of record” for the Tories until mid- afternoon Thursday.