by Brent Smyth and Nathan Sing
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown has responded to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne after she issued a libel suit Thursday afternoon.
Shortly after media outlets were provided with the letter, which CBC says was dated Thursday, Brown responded to the suit while talking to RSJ reporter Hilary Punchard Friday afternoon.
“I just think it was a baseless legal threat…it was an attempt at diversion,” said Brown. “There are two Liberal political corruption trials going on right now and it was a clever technique by the Liberal party to divert attention from these two liberal political corruption trials.”
The suit stems from claims made by Brown during a Queen’s Park media scrum, saying that Wynne was “on trial” in the Sudbury by-election bribery case.
Brown was referring to the trial against Gerry Lougheed, a Liberal activist, and Patricia Sorbara, Wynne’s former deputy chief of staff, who are both on trial for alleged Election Act violations. The premier testified as a Crown witness.
Brown called the lawsuit a “tactic they’ve used before on a number of occasions.”
“They’d use anything to try and distract and trick the public, and I’m not going to respond to these legal threats that are simply diversion tactics,” said Brown.
The notice is the next step toward a lawsuit being filed in court.
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