MPP says warning about Brown was dismissed
Tory Lisa MacLeod told campaign official last year about concerns with leader
A Progressive Conservative MPP who flagged sexual misconduct concerns about Patrick Brown to a senior campaign official late last year says they were dismissed as “unfounded.”
The revelation from Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) raises questions about how the party handled rumours that had been swirling in political and media circles since Brown became leader in 2015.
MacLeod, the first member of the PC caucus to express support for two unnamed women who made allegations about Brown on Wednesday, said she’d heard “similar things” that included “inappropriate touching” and “multiple girlfriends.”
She relayed them to party volunteer Dimitri Soudas, once director of communications for former prime minister Stephen Harper, “two or three times before Christmas,” but did not provide names.
Soudas, tapped to run the party’s “war room” of strategists for the June 7 provincial election until Brown’s resignation early Thursday, said “everybody knew of these rumours,” but the lack of specifics from MacLeod made it hard to follow up.
“What am I supposed to do with something so vague?” he told the Star in a telephone interview Friday, noting he was a volunteer.
The fact nothing solid had materialized about Brown at that point led him to conclude there was nothing to all the whispers.
“All media organizations were turning over every single stone that they could find, and they couldn’t find anything.”
That changed after CTV reported the allegations from two women, who were in their late teens at the time of the alleged incidents when Brown was the federal Conservative MP for Barrie under Harper. The story prompted a strong denial from Brown.
Soudas said he did not report MacLeod’s concerns up the party’s chain of command or ask Brown about them. “According to Ms. McLeod (sic) these rumours were given to her by Eric Lindros,” he tweeted, referring to the former hockey great whom MacLeod has worked with on concussion awareness.
PC party president Rick Dykstra said Friday he knew of no such rumours about Brown, with whom he served as an MP. “Actually, I did not. No.” MacLeod would not provide any specifics of what she heard Friday and acknowledged she did not give any to Soudas, a longtime friend.
“There’s a woman and possibly other women that are going to deal with that and that’s their truth to tell,” MacLeod added.
Soudas said he advised MacLeod to take her concerns to the PC caucus and Brown, tweeting “she clearly didn’t.”
MacLeod said she went to Soudas because “I didn’t have a lot of trust in a lot of Patrick Brown’s people.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath expressed frustration at the situation.
“Today’s indication that the PC par- ty may have dismissed similar concerns about their leader as ‘unfounded’ is deeply troubling, and raises serious questions,” Horwath said in a statement. “For too long, women that have come forward have been systematically ignored and undermined by organizations that protect men in positions of power.”
Interim PC Leader Vic Fedeli, chosen by his caucus mates Friday, said he will bring in stronger human resources policies for the party.
“No one should ever be afraid to speak up.”