Premier Kathleen Wynne has threatened legal action‎ against Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak for what she calls ‎”false, misleading and defamatory allegations about me” after the latest bombshell revelation in the $1.1-billion scandal over two cancelled gas-fired power plants .

Wynne sent an open letter to Hudak on Sunday (see below), calling him out on remarks made after the Star revealed that the Ontario Provincial Police are investigating David Livingston, the former chief of staff to her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, for breach of trust in the alleged wiping of computer hard drives to remove politically sensitive documents.

The Conservatives branded Wynne’s letter as an “attempt to threaten the opposition.”

“I won’t be muzzled, nor will my leader,” Tory energy critic Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) said during a Sunday afternoon conference call.

Police claim Livingston — who has denied any wrongdoing — got a special global access computer password for a computer whiz from outside the government to go through the hard drives. OPP allege that person was Peter Faist, the boyfriend of Laura Miller, a deputy to Livingston. Both Miller and Faist have declined requests for comment.

The OPP allegations have not been proven in court and no charges have been laid. But the flare-up in the gas plant scandal could increase the odds of a spring election if the New Democrats don’t allow the minority government’s upcoming budget to pass.

The computer password was active from Feb. 6, 2013 — Wynne assumed power from McGuinty on Feb. 11 — until March 20 of the same year. Police say it was used on Feb. 6 and 7, and they have seized 24 hard drives now being examined by officers in the force’s technological services branch.

‎”You alleged that I personally ‘oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction on documents’ and that criminal conduct took place in my office,” Wynne wrote in the one-page letter.

“The allegations and accusations are false and you ought to know it,” she continues, charging Hudak’s comments went beyond “spirited political debate” and represent “the worst kind of politics.”

“I have sought and obtained legal advice regarding your comments, and if steps are not taken immediately, I will have no choice but to take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure your false statements are corrected.”

Wynne asked Hudak and the Conservatives to “immediately stop repeating these untrue statements and to immediately remove them from the PC Party website and all other communications.”

MacLeod said the Conservatives will “proceed as normal” and said the concerns raised by herself and Hudak about the computer password access stem from the police document that states it was in place from Feb. 6, 2013 to March 20, 2013, a period spanning McGuinty’s final days and the first six weeks of the Wynne administration.

“We’ve focused on those dates,” said MacLeod.

The police documents, used to obtain a search warrant to seize the hard drives, do not mention any password access after Feb. 7, 2013. It is not known what, if anything, police have found on the 24 hard drives seized from a Mississauga data warehouse on Feb. 19 of this year.

MacLeod questioned the seriousness of the Wynne letter, describing it as more of a “media stunt” than a legal move.

“We haven’t received a letter from any lawyer,” she told reporters, adding “we will not be facing chill.”

Hudak and MacLeod were highly critical of Wynne at a news conference last Thursday in the legislature’s media studio after details of the Livingston investigation were posted on the Star’s website.

They also said the OPP allegations show the gas plants scandal now belongs as much to Wynne as it did to McGuinty, who decided to scrap the plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election, which reduced his government to a minority.

Opposition parties say those cancellations were “seat saver” moves funded by taxpayers to save Liberal MPPS in the southwest corner of the GTA.

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has since calculated the cost of scrapping the plants, which had faced community opposition, and relocating them to Sarnia and Napanee will cost up to $1.1 billion.

Wynne’s letter appears aimed at blunting Conservative attacks when the legislature resumes Monday for the first full question period since the revelations emerged late Thursday morning, breathing new life into a scandal the Liberals had hoped was fading in the public memory.

The Conservatives and New Democrats have renewed calls for a public inquiry into the plant cancellations. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is also calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor from outside the province to guide the investigation to avoid any potential political interference. Wynne has said the OPP has been consulting a federal prosecutor.

Horwath wasn’t tipping her hand Sunday on whether she would plunge the province into a June election over the budget, expected in early May.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

On a Newstalk1010 show she hosted, Horwath took several calls from voters urging her to stop propping up the Liberals.

“We have some serious decisions to make,” Horwath acknowledged to a man who phoned in from Ottawa.

Horwath told him the NDP wants “more answers” in the gas plants scandal.

“There are some new revelations … we’re going to be pretty busy in the next week or so trying to find out who knew what and when.”

The Conservatives have served notice they now intend to call more of McGuinty’s former premier’s office staff whose computers were seized by the OPP to testify before a legislative committee probing the gas plants scandal.

“It has brought more people to our attention,” MacLeod said.

Full text of Kathleen Wynne’s letter

Dear Mr. Hudak

During your press conference on March 27th you made several false, misleading and defamatory allegations about me. You alleged that I personally “oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents” and that criminal conduct took place in my office. The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party repeated these false allegations on its website and in a public mailing.

These allegations and accusations are false and utterly unsupported, and you ought to know it.

As political leaders it is our role and public duty to engage in spirited political debate on issues. The decision to relocate the gas plants and the facts related to the ongoing police investigation are legitimate subjects for this political debate. False, misleading and defamatory statements are not, and they represent the worst kind of politics. That is why I am writing this open letter to you.

There should be no tolerance for false and defamatory accusations as a means to gain political power.

I am asking you and your caucus to immediately stop repeating these untrue statements and to immediately remove them from the PC Party website and all other communications.

I have sought and obtained legal advice regarding your comments, and if steps are not taken immediately, I will have no choice but to take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure your false statements are corrected.

Kathleen Wynne

Premier of Ontario

Read more about: