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Wednesday the Toronto Star reported that Brown squired a 23-year-old female intern/girlfriend to India. Who paid for her trip and why was she there, the paper asked.

I had planned to ask him directly.

Minutes before air time my producer Becky was desperately trying to find Brown and his team. We were told he would not be in studio, but on the phone. OK. A bit of a disappointment to the TV crews lined up to record the talk, but workable for my radio audience.

Then we were told he wasn’t going to appear at all.

Patrick Brown’s Press Secretary Alise Mills came on air in his stead telling us that it was a scheduling mix up saying, “This one is all on me.”

I asked, “Where is he?” She would not say.

A scheduling conflict is resolved by prioritizing one thing over the other.

Listeners told me they had made time to be available to listen, so I felt they should be told what had been decided was more important than they were.

But it isn’t Brown’s fault; it is Mills’, says the sacrificial lamb.

The accusers aired by CTV are liars, according to Brown.

When asked about complicated financial matters that may or may not involve someone paying Brown for the opportunity to run for office, Brown says someone stole his personal financial records.

Asked about what happened to the money that came in from what we are now told are illegitimate party memberships Brown says that the leader doesn’t handle the money.

Brown says that he has completed the task of clearing his name, but I am not sure that he has done so to a certainty with anyone other than himself. (Remember I defended him in his quest to do so.)

On the matter of taking a girlfriend on a trip to India, rather than answer a reasonable question from the Star with an explanation, Brown did not respond.

He wrote in an email to supporters that he is the victim of a smear campaign in which, “They think they can use my personal life, family and relationships against me as attacks.”

Perhaps he is the victim of a massive and well-organized smear campaign. I really wanted to ask him about that.

But it is starting to feel like the dog ate Patrick Brown’s homework one too many times.