An “emotionally devastated” former Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown has filed a lawsuit seeking $8 million in damages from CTV News.

Brown, who was forced to resign on Jan. 25, just hours after CTV broadcast a story alleging sexual impropriety with two women, filed a statement of claim Monday at the Barrie courthouse.

If the action is successful, it would be the largest libel award in Canadian history.

The lawsuit names CTV News president Wendy Freeman, anchor Lisa LaFlamme, reporters Glen McGregor, Rachel Aiello, and Travis Dhanraj, and four unnamed producers and editors.

It argues the network “falsely, maliciously, unfairly and irresponsibly broadcast” the stories that ended Brown’s tenure as the PC leader.

Brown has denied the allegations since an 81-second news conference held just 15 minutes before the Jan. 24 broadcast.

But his senior aides resigned en masse that night and he stepped down as party leader early the next morning, triggering a leadership race that ultimately saw Doug Ford take the party helm.

Bell Media’s director of communications, Matthew Garrow, said “CTV News stands by its reporting and will vigorously defend it in court.”

Brown’s 35-page statement of claim says that the Simcoe North MPP, who now sits at Queen’s Park as an independent, “continues to suffer from stress, anxiety, hurt, humiliation and embarrassment and was and is emotionally devastated.

“The swift demolition of his personal and professional reputation on national television left Mr. Brown in a complete state of shock and disbelief,” the suit said.

“Mr. Brown did not want to leave his home. He felt his world was crashing in on him,” it continued.

“Shunned in the political community, Mr. Brown was abandoned by his campaign team, forced to resign as leader of the (Ontario) PC Party, ejected from the Tory caucus, and cast aside from his political party.”

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown says he "categorically" denies allegations made against him but for which he provided no details. Brown made a brief, late-night statement Jan. 24. (The Canadian Press)

The lawsuit, which contains claims that have not been proven in court, also cites CTV’s “interference with the democratic process,” because Ontarians are voting in a June 7 election.

“Until the defendants destroyed his personal and professional reputation and demolished his political career, Mr. Brown was expected to become the next premier of Ontario.”

His lawyers charge that Brown “had no reasonable time to respond,” because he was “ambushed … mere hours before the scheduled Jan. 24 broadcast.”

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The lawsuit says Brown’s chief of staff, Alykhan Velshi, first received an email from McGregor citing the allegations at 4:24 p.m. on the day of the broadcast, which aired at 10 p.m.

CTV reported that one of the women who alleged misconduct against Brown said she was in high school at the time she met him at a bar.

The woman later revised that recollection, telling CTV that she was 19, not 18, at the time of the encounter.

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