Ontario’s ethics watchdog is citing “insufficient grounds” in refusing to investigate a New Democrat allegation Premier Doug Ford broke the law by approving the firing of OPP deputy commissioner Brad Blair.

“To commence an inquiry in these circumstances would be tantamount to embarking on a fishing expedition,” provincial integrity commissioner J. David Wake said Tuesday in a five-page report.

New Democrat MPP Kevin Yarde charged in March that Ford breached the Members’ Integrity Act by using his office to influence the decision to terminate Blair, a veteran Ontario Provincial Police officer who was passed over for the commissioner’s job initially given to Ford family friend Ron Taverner.

Blair was fired after revealing that the premier’s office had pushed the OPP to provide Ford with a customized travel van outfitted with a reclining leather sofa, flat screen television, Blu-ray DVD player, lounge chairs and a fridge at an estimated cost of $50,000.

“Mr. Yarde has not provided any information in his affidavit to describe specifically how the premier was involved in this decision,” Wake wrote.

He noted Community Safety Minister Sylvia Jones has told the Legislature the decision to fire Blair was made by the nine-member Ontario Public Service Commission.

Jones said Wake’s decision is a vindication and maintained there was nothing questionable about the firing.

“What is questionable to me is that a person who clearly had sour grapes and was angry that they did not get the job they applied for continued to use his position in an inappropriate way, and he was dealt with,” she told reporters.

“I think if anyone needs to look back and study their actions it would be Mr. Blair.”

Blair’s lawyer, Julian Falconer, blasted Wake for a “mystifying” decision not to investigate.

“No one looking objectively at the circumstances of the Ron Taverner appointment and the ultimate firing of Brad Blair could help but wonder about whether his termination was an act of reprisal by a premier who was prevented from installing his friend as commissioner,” Falconer told the Star.

“It does not surprise me he gave Premier Ford a clean bill of health since he never went looking into the problem. Respectfully, this really does raise the question of the resourcing and qualifications of this particular public official,” he added in a shot at Wake.

Wake declined interviews Tuesday but added in his report “there is no indication from Mr. Yarde that any of the members of the Public Service Commission or the cabinet were improperly influenced by the premier to arrive at their decision.”

Opposition parties cautioned the government from reading too much into Wake’s refusal to investigate.

“It’s not an exoneration, it’s simply the limits of the integrity commissioner’s power,” said interim Liberal leader John Fraser.

“I don’t think there’s a single person in Ontario, as a matter of fact, who doesn’t think that that entire debacle, whether it was the hiring of Mr. Taverner or the firing of Brad Blair, stunk to high heaven,” added NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“That whole process was a stinking mess.”

Blair has filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against Ford, alleging the premier stated on several occasions that Blair had breached the Police Services Act. Blair has not been charged with or convicted of anything under the law that governs police conduct.

The allegations in Blair’s lawsuit, which calls Ford’s statements “grossly negligent” and “malicious,” has not been tested in court.

Ford denies the accusations in his statement of defence, arguing it was Blair who launched “a malicious and unprovoked personal and political attack and assault” against him by “improperly” using internal police information in a court case to contest the hiring of Taverner, a 72-year-old Toronto Police superintendent.

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