A former deputy OPP commissioner is pushing back after his high-profile firing, calling it revenge for his court bid to block the appointment of Premier Doug Ford’s friend Ron Taverner as head of the police force.

“It is patently clear to me that this is reprisal and an attempt to muzzle me,” Brad Blair, who was passed over for the top job, said in a new court documents filed following his termination on Monday by deputy community safety minister Mario Di Tommaso, whom he accused of a conflict of interest.

The details emerged Tuesday as the New Democrats renewed calls for a public inquiry into the controversial hiring of Taverner, 72, and Blair’s dismissal.

It was Blair who raised concerns about the independence of the OPP under Taverner, launching a court case to force Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube to investigate the appointment, and blew the whistle on Ford’s demands for a customized travel van with reclining leather sofa, minifridge and 32-inch TV.

“This mess continues to get worse and worse and the only way to clear the air is for…a complete public inquiry,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

She is urging independent provincial integrity commissioner J. David Wake — who is now conducting an internal probe under the Members’ Integrity Act into allegations of Progressive Conservative political interference in the Taverner hiring — to use his discretionary powers to conduct a broader public investigation.

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“We need to have this thing blown wide open.”

Taverner’s appointment is on hold at his own request pending Wake’s probe.

The integrity commissioner interviewed Ford late last week, a senior government source said.

“We are co-operating fully and hope this process wraps up as expediently as possible.”

Included in Blair’s court filing was a letter the premier wrote to Wake in December confirming a “personal friendship” with Taverner but insisting “I was not directly involved in the recruitment process.” Ford also tried to allay concerns over how the job requirements were eased allowing Taverner to make the grade, saying they doubled the pool of applicants.

Ford, who has accused Blair of “sour grapes” for not getting the commissioner’s job, was not in the legislature’s daily question period Tuesday.

“Brad Blair didn’t have a lot to gain from blowing the whistle on this premier, but the premier had everything to gain from firing Brad Blair,” charged New Democrat MPP Taras Natyshak (Essex).

Blair released a statement Tuesday noting Di Tommaso, the senior civil servant who fired him, was a subject of his December complaint requesting the ombudsman investigation, creating a conflict of interest. The ombudsman refused the request, saying the Taverner hiring was beyond his scope of powers.

“I brought the serious issues of real and/or perceived political interference with the independent operations of the OPP to the provincial ombudsman because the cost of a compromised OPP is too great a price to pay,” Blair wrote in the statement released by his lawyer, Julian Falconer.

“The OPP can be called in to investigate provincial politicians, and the citizens of Ontario need to have faith that the OPP is truly independent, above political interference, and free from abuses of power,” added Blair.

“Raising such concerns has not come without its costs, but I remain steadfast in the belief that it was the right thing to do.”

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Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones said Blair’s firing was approved by a nine-member public service commission and blamed him for releasing internal OPP emails on the van and a profane Ford tirade about new faces on his OPP bodyguard detail.

She defended Di Tommaso’s role in the firing as “appropriate” because as deputy minister the commissioner of the OPP reports to him.

In the court filing, Blair said he was met by Interim OPP Commissioner Gary Couture shortly after 8 a.m. Monday at police headquarters in Orillia, advised that Di Tommaso was waiting for him, then given the letter in a 10-minute meeting and given some time to grab personal items before leaving the building.

With files from Robert Benzie

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