Tory Leader Patrick Brown took matters a step further, arguing that Wynne should step aside as premier until the case is dealt with in court. “Now, through their good work, the OPP have confirmed that what the Premier’s top Liberal fundraiser did in December past year warrants criminal charges”.
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The OPP has charged Gerald Lougheed, Jr, 61, of Sudbury, with one count each of Counselling an Offence Not Committed and Unlawfully Influencing or Negotiating Appointments.
Both Sorbara and Lougheed have denied the allegations.
Ms. Wynne is not under investigation, but police interrogated her as part of the probe into Ms. Sorbara and Mr. Lougheed.
Lougheed released a statement Thursday morning saying he would be “vigorously defending these charges in the courts” and that he has stepped down from his position at the Sudbury Regional Police Services Board and as Chancellor of Huntington University “until the matter is resolved”.
Just before the February 5 byelection, Andrew Olivier, the Liberal candidate in Sudbury in last year’s election, said Premier Kathleen Wynne’s deputy chief of staff, Pat Sorbara, and Sudbury Liberal Gerry Lougheed, offered him a position or appointment to step aside in favour of Wynne’s preferred choice, then-NDP MP Glenn Thibeault.
“Ontarians continue to await updates on the 3 other pending OPP investigations into this government”.
“Allegedly, Gerry Lougheed was her spokesman….”
NDP house leader Gilles Bisson said Wynne had defended Lougheed’s actions and he wanted to know who was behind the offers to Olivier. Was it somebody in her office?
The controversy began when New Democrat MPP Joe Cimino resigned on November 20, just five months after winning the riding of Sudbury in the 2014 provincial election. But Olivier released tapes of critical conversations with him and with Sorbara that shed quite a lot of light on the distinctions between Lougheed’s involvement and Sorbara’s.
“The Premier wants to talk to you. Who gave the order to Mr. Lougheed to offer incentives for Mr. Olivier not to run?” she said. “Did she tell Gerry Lougheed to do this?” “Politically, what’s in it for me?” went Lougheed’s script. “In my long term, short term, is there an appointment, are you gonna let me head up a commission?”
“Although I did not initiate this investigation, I will cooperate as I have from the outset with the authorities in any way I can”, he said Thursday, declining further comment.
Even before Olivier made the recordings public, the opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats had called on the OPP and Elections Ontario to see if the phone conversations broke any laws.
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But with Thursday’s criminal charges, Horwath said that explanation doesn’t hold water.
