TORONTO – The New Democrats say Premier Kathleen Wynne must “come clean” about her role in the apparent contravention of Ontario’s Election Act by two Liberals in a recent Sudbury byelection.
Elections Ontario said Liberals Pat Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed apparently violated a bribery section of the act after an investigation found evidence they offered a job or appointment to former candidate Andrew Olivier to step aside in the Feb. 5 byelection.
Wynne maintains she’d already decided Olivier would not be the Liberal candidate, so there was no need to offer him anything to step aside.
But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath doubts Wynne’s timeline and says Sorbara and Lougheed can be heard on audio recordings with Olivier saying no decision had been made yet.
Horwath says the premier “has a glimmer of hope to redeem herself” by spelling out her role in the negotiations with Olivier.
The Progressive Conservatives have joined the NDP in demanding Wynne force Sorbara to step aside as her deputy chief of staff and have Lougheed removed from Sudbury’s police services board until an OPP investigation is complete.
Greg Essensa, the chief electoral officer of Ontario, concluded that Sorbara and Lougheed’s actions “constitute an apparent contravention” of a section of the Election Act concerning “bribery in connection with inducing a person to become, refrain from becoming, or withdrawing from being a candidate.”
Elections Ontario has no mandate to conduct prosecutions, so Essensa sent the case to the Ministry of the Attorney General, which in turn delegated the federal Public Prosecution Service to decide whether or not to lay charges.
A conviction under the bribery section of the Election Act carries a penalty of up to $5,000. If a judge finds it was broken “knowingly,” the penalty is a fine of up to $25,000 and/or up to two years less a day in jail.
Ontario Provincial Police are also investigating whether the alleged actions violated the Criminal Code.
Wynne has said the Liberals were simply trying to keep Olivier – who had been their candidate in last June’s general election – involved in the party after deciding to appoint former New Democrat MP Glenn Thibeault as their candidate.
Thibeault won the byelection and took his seat in the legislature Tuesday.
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