Patrick Brown insists he did nothing wrong by speaking at a “volunteer appreciation BBQ” at the Brampton home of a federal Conservative candidate fired for homophobic comments before last October’s election.

Brown, who a year ago became the first leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives to lead an official delegation in Toronto’s annual Pride parade, attended the event last Saturday.

It was held under a big white tent in the yard of Punjabi Post publisher Jagdish Grewal, who ran in the riding of Mississauga-Malton won by Liberal Navdeep Bains, now the minister of innovation, science and economic development for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Conservatives dropped Grewal less than a week before the fall vote — when it was too late to have his name removed from the ballot — for defending so-called “conversion” therapies that attempt to turn gay people straight, and calling homosexuality “unnatural behaviour.”

Although invitations to the event obtained by the Star described it as a “volunteer appreciation BBQ” at “Jagdish Grewals (sic) residence” and listed his son’s phone number, “I didn’t even know Jagdish was going to be there until I arrived,” Brown said in a statement.

“I was surprised to learn they were thanking PC volunteers at the event,” added Brown, who will march in Sunday’s Pride parade leading a delegation of his MPPs.

“I do not condone or support Jagdish’s comments in any shape or form,” Brown continued. “My views within the Punjabi community are well known: I support LGBT rights and make my position very clear, whether it is at a Pride flag raising, marching in Pride or in my media commentary.”

Grewal emailed the Star a statement saying the barbecue event was not originally conceived as a volunteer appreciation night for Brown’s leadership supporters.

“The initial purpose of this event was to celebrate the 14th anniversary of Punjabi Post. That is why I invited Patrick Brown and the Indian consulate-general. Patrick has made his stance on same sex marriage very clear. We all know that he scolded the Indian government when they tried to block the premier from going to the Golden Temple.”

His son, Hardeep Grewal, told the Star the barbecue was to honour volunteers who helped Brown win the PC leadership race just over a year ago.

“We did a lot of work for Patrick,” he said in an interview, noting the location was chosen because his father had a big enough yard to host the crowd over 100.

“It has nothing to do with my dad, it has nothing to do with the federal election,” he added.

At the event, Brown posed for pictures with the Grewals and gave them a shout-out in his speech. Progressive Conservative president Rick Dykstra was also there.

“I feel very privileged, very fortunate, very lucky to have so many incredible friends in my life and to have this opportunity to have a thank-you barbecue, which was Jagdish and Hardeep’s idea,” Brown told the crowd before using Indian political lexicon to describe the job of premier.

“If I have the honour in one year and 11 months to be Ontario’s next chief minister, then I’m going to convince Jagdish and Hardeep to have another barbecue here.”

Brown, who frequently tweets about his meetings and events through his @BrownBarrie account, did not post anything on Twitter about the barbecue.

However, he did tweet several other stops from his riding to the GTA that day: a pancake breakfast, a parade in Victoria Harbour, a hockey game between the Conservative Party of Canada and Ontario PCs, the opening of a new Shoppers Drug Mart in Barrie, and a Ramadan Iftar in Mississauga.

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Brown’s director of communications, Tamara Macgregor, said “it’s fair to say he only tweets about half his events.”

Brown voted against gay marriage as a Conservative MP in Ottawa, where he served the riding of Barrie for nine years before becoming leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservatives.

Shortly after winning the job in May 2015, he announced plans to lead an official delegation in the Pride parade and was recently at this year’s Pride flag raising at Queen’s Park.

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