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Jail, jail, jail: There had to be jail time, the judge said.

He said it — “jail” or, his preferred term, “imprisonment,” as in “term of” — nine times in his 11-page decision.

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Anything less would fail to sufficiently condemn what he called “egregious” conduct which struck “at the heart of the democratic process.”

Anything less would “fall short of adequately denouncing” what David Livingston had done in “orchestrating the wiping of the hard drives” in the office of former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, and would fail to discourage others in government from doing the same.

In fact it was his duty to send Livingston to jail, Ontario Provincial Court Judge Tim Lipson said, as it is the responsibility of the judiciary to protect democratic institutions such as legislative committees.

Thus on Wednesday was the 65-year-old Livingston put in handcuffs and led away, like any other mook at Toronto’s Old City Hall courts — the final note in a shattering fall from grace for a man with a distinguished career who had served for nine months in 2012-13 as the former premier’s chief of staff.