High-ranking Liberals improperly pressured the Speaker of Ontario’s legislature to back down on a ruling that put former premier Dalton McGuinty’s government at risk of contempt of parliament, opposition parties charge.

The accusation came just days before five byelections, putting Premier Kathleen Wynne’s administration in damage-control mode and overshadowing her announcement of a new job training program for youth.

“This is not only appalling, it is completely inappropriate and unacceptable in a democracy,” Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod said Monday after emails released in relation to the $585 million gas plant cancellations revealed a backdoor push that New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson called “bullying.”

Speaker Dave Levac’s preliminary ruling in September 2012 found then-energy minister Chris Bentley breached parliamentary privilege for failing to release documents ordered four months earlier by a legislative committee investigating the cancellation of power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election.

Bentley, who has since left politics, said at the time he could not release the materials for fear of jeopardizing negotiations to compensate the plants’ builders, which could result in higher costs for taxpayers. Wynne’s officials noted Monday that costs and thousands of emails have been released since negotiations concluded.

At issue are Sept. 21, 2012 emails from former senior McGuinty adviser Laura Miller and Liberal campaign chair Don Guy about Levac — the Liberal MPP for Brant who serves as Speaker, the impartial referee of the legislature. He was elected by MPPs of all stripes.

Miller wrote that a fellow McGuinty staffer Dave Gene “is putting the member from Brant on notice that we need better here.”

Guy’s email said: “Speaker needs to follow up on his prima facie finding and change his mind.”

The approaches did not work even though Gene had a meeting with the Speaker.

“DG reports he isn’t confident coming out of his chat with Levac,” Miller wrote the following day.

Gene was travelling in Europe on Monday and could not be reached for comment. Levac did not return telephone calls from the Star.

Guy told the Star in an email he urged a push on Levac for a reversal fearing the ruling could trip a costly and “unnecessary” election “due to the partisan witch hunt of the opposition parties.”

Miller, who is no longer with the government, said the Conservatives “zeroed in (on) one heated email exchange . . . I recall this day very well because it was the moment I realized that the PCs were hell bent on advancing a partisan cause at Chris Bentley’s expense.”

Bisson said it’s alarming the Miller email said Levac was being put “on notice” because the phrase has sinister overtones.

“Notice that he may not get help in the next election? Notice that there may be some other ramifications.”

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Miller told the Star that is not the case.

“There really is no way to strong-arm the Speaker. You can’t remove him. And as to threatening his nomination, that would just be silly because we need(ed) him to keep the seat.”

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