Wynne says she will drop suit if Tories apologize
TORONTO • Premier Kathleen Wynne offered Monday to drop a lawsuit against former Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak and Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod if they would apologize, but the Tories accused her of bending the law for political gain.
Ms. Wynne launched the suit last April after Mr. Hudak and Ms. MacLeod said the premier oversaw and possibly ordered the destruction of documents on cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga, an act being investigated by the Ontario Provincial Police.
“If the two members would just apologize, the whole thing would go away,” Ms. Wynne told the legislature. “There was a completely unfounded allegation made on the eve of an election. Just apologize ... and the whole thing goes away.”
Ms. MacLeod said Ms. Wynne filed the lawsuit to quash legitimate opposition criticism, and accused the premier of killing legislation the very next day that would have allowed her and Mr. Hudak to challenge the suit.
“Did the premier kill the anti-SLAPP bill the day after she launched the lawsuit because it would affect her attempt to muzzle the opposition?” she asked.
The bill to allow people to challenge strategic lawsuits against public participation, so-called SLAPP suits, was reintroduced in December, added Ms. MacLeod.
“The premier must know how this looks,” she told the legislature. “It appears she killed her own law for her own political gain. She thinks she’s above the law, and if the law doesn’t suit her, she changes it.”
Ms. Wynne said the bill was amended in its latest incarnation because courts don’t like retroactive changes to laws.
“I think the member opposite knows that retroactive rulemaking is not something that is seen favourably by the courts,” she said.
The premier said she filed suit because the “unfounded and completely untrue” allegations by the Conservatives just before the Liberals easily beat the Conservatives last year.