Opposition parties stay focused on Sudbury byelection scandal

For the second day in a row, opposition parties in the Ontario Legislature kept hammering at the Liberal government over the Sudbury byelection scandal.

The Progressive Conservatives are focusing their attacks on the fact Gerry Lougheed Jr. is still chair of the Greater Sudbury Police Services Board, despite the ongoing OPP investigation into his role in the scandal.

Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Wilson asked Premier Kathleen Wynne on Monday why she hasn't used her authority to withdraw Lougheed's appointment to the board.

“The (Ontario Civilian Police) Commission has said board members should act with the highest levels of honesty and integrity,” Wilson said. “It should not take criminal charges or convictions to prove Mr. Lougheed Jr. fell below that standard. It simply takes listening to Mr. (Andrew) Olivier's recording. When will you demonstrate integrity and remove Mr. Lougheed Jr. from the board?”

And on Tuesday morning, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath tried to get Wynne to clarify timelines regarding when she decided to appoint Glenn Thibeault the candidate for the Feb. 5 byelection. While Wynne has said she made the decision in November, audio recordings released by Olivier have Lougheed and Liberal party campaign director Pat Sorbara saying Wynne wanted to avoid an appointment.

Horwath said the recordings indicate they wanted Olivier to withdraw from the race and back Thibeault, something Olivier said he would consider but ultimately rejected.

“(The premier's) story doesn't match anyone else's,” Horwath said. “When will the premier provide some evidence, Mr. Speaker, that backs up her story and makes it clear that Pat Sorbara's version is wrong, Mr. Lougheed's version is wrong, Glenn Thibeault's version is wrong, Andrew Olivier's version is wrong, the Sudbury Liberal Riding Association's version is wrong, the OPP's version is wrong, and Election Ontario's version is wrong?”

In response, Wynne repeated again that she couldn't comment on the ongoing investigation, but she got a dig in at Horwath, whose party lost Sudbury to the Liberals in the byelection.

“I know, Mr. Speaker, that the leader of the third party would like to rewrite a version of what happened in Sudbury,” Wynne said. “Because the leader of the third party would very much have liked to have won that election, Mr. Speaker. She would like to rewrite history, but that's not going to happen.”

And in response to calls to intervene and have Lougheed removed, Wynne said she trusts the procedures in place to deal with cases such as this.

“Police services boards are not directed by me or by this house, Mr. Speaker,” Wynne said Monday. “We need to let the police services board take action as it sees fit. We need to let the investigation unfold outside this Legislature, which is where it's appropriate.”