Premier Christy Clark dodges the issue in her impassioned defence of the sa国际传媒 Liberal party鈥檚 executive director. Laura Miller is described as a 鈥減erson of interest鈥� to police investigating the alleged destruction of documents connected with two unpopular gas-fired power plants the Ontario Liberals cancelled.
The controversy led to the resignation of former premier Dalton McGuinty and is the focus of a probe by an Ontario legislative committee.
The Ontario Provincial Police are conducting a criminal investigation into allegations that key Liberal political staff illegally deleted emails concerning the cancellation of the power plants.
Axing the power plants is credited with tipping the balance in favour of the Ontario Liberals in five seats in the 2011 election. Ontario opposition MPPs contend the move was done for political advantage at a cost to Ontario taxpayers estimated at $1.1 billion.
Miller was a deputy chief of staff in McGuinty鈥檚 government when, police say, computer hard drives in the premier鈥檚 office were cleared of emails and other information, apparently in an attempt to cover up the true cost of the cancellation of the power plants.
Police allege that Miller鈥檚 former boss, McGuinty鈥檚 chief of staff David Livingston, brought in Miller鈥檚 boyfriend, Peter Faist, to clear the hard drives. Faist was not a government employee at the time, but was under contract to provide IT services to the government caucus and the Ontario Liberal Party.
Miller and several other senior McGuinty aides joined the sa国际传媒 Liberals after McGuinty left office in early 2013. Ontario New Democrat Peter Tabuns, a member of the legislative committee probing the power-plant scandal, has written Clark asking her to give Miller time off to return to testify before the committee.
Miller appeared before the committee last August in connection with a ruling against the government by the Speaker of the legislature, stemming from then-energy minister Chris Bentley鈥檚 initial refusal to release all documents connected to the power plants. She testified that she and other Liberal staffers did not try to pressure the Speaker into changing his ruling, but merely wanted him to know they thought that Progressive Conservative MPPs had unfairly targeted Bentley.
When approached by the OPP regarding the hard drives, Miller refused to speak to police without a guarantee her words wouldn鈥檛 be used against her in any proceedings.
Miller is not accused of any crime, nor should anyone imply she is guilty of one, but she worked for a person police believe ordered the hard drives wiped, and her boyfriend, who did not have legal access to the computers or the premier鈥檚 office, is alleged to have done the technical work. Miller should tell what she knows. If she knows nothing of the situation, she should say so.
Clark says Miller is 鈥渁 person of absolutely sterling character and she works incredibly hard for our party and for our province. She鈥檚 a person of the utmost integrity, and we鈥檙e really, really lucky to have her in sa国际传媒鈥�
Setting aside the fact the interests of the sa国际传媒 Liberals and the province do not always coincide, Miller鈥檚 service here is irrelevant. The issue is what happened in Ontario, and that needs to be cleared up in the interests of the Ontario taxpayers Miller once served.
It is relevant to sa国际传媒, however, to know that Miller had no role in improprieties or illegalities. How a person has acted in the past is not a guarantee of how that person will act in the future, but it鈥檚 a pretty good indicator.
Until Miller does her part to clear the air, a cloud hangs over her, one that casts a dark shadow in sa国际传媒 That cloud needs to be dispelled.
