As Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown promotes his new “People’s Guarantee” campaign platform on a barnstorming tour of Ontario this week, police are stepping up a criminal probe into fraud allegations at a Tory nomination.

Hamilton police detectives are investigating unnamed Conservative officials in connection with the party’s May 7 candidate election in the riding of Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas.

Sources told the Star that police were conducting interviews with potential witnesses on Saturday at the same time as Brown was unveiling his 78-page, 147-promise election manifesto to 1,500 Tories at the Toronto Congress Centre.

Rick Dykstra, the PC Party president, said officials are co-operating fully with the criminal investigation and the Tories’ lawyer, Peter Brauti, has emphasized that “as far as I know, they’re not looking at the leader; they’re not looking at the party.”

According to court documents filed by police last Wednesday, Det. Const. Adam Jefferess obtained an “order of detention” to keep as potential evidence a slew of material handed over at PC Party headquarters on Bay St. a month ago.

“The following items were turned over to me: two brown cardboard boxes (box one — Ontario PC Party ballots; box two — Credential Referrals Forms, two binders containing emails including a selection of emails that were stapled together), and two USB drives containing digital copies of the same emails,” Jefferess said in a “report to a justice” filed at the Hamilton courthouse.

“Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 16 I searched these items for evidence of fraud and utter forged documents which relates to an ongoing criminal investigation into an allegation of fraud that took place on May 7, 2017 during an Ontario PC Party nomination meeting,” the detective said.

After that riding meeting, Vikram Singh, a Hamilton lawyer and runner-up in the four-contestant nomination, launched a civil action against the Conservative party alleging “wrongful insertion of false ballots.”

Singh then filed a complaint with police. The criminal probe is separate from his ongoing civil suit, which names Brown, Dykstra, PC executive director Bob Stanley and senior Brown aide Logan Bugeja.

The Tories have denied any wrongdoing in the civil case and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

According to the court documents filed on Wednesday, police can keep the seized items until Dec. 27 “or until the completion of all proceedings, as charges have been laid.”

Criminal fraud is a serious matter. A conviction can lead to a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

This latest development comes as the Tories emerge from a triumphant weekend policy convention, where Brown promised to enact a “trust, integrity, and accountability act” if elected premier on June 7.

“Under Kathleen Wynne and the Ontario Liberal Party, political corruption has flourished,” he told delegates.

“They’ve been the subject of multiple police investigations — in some cases it even led to criminal charges.”

That was a reference to the deleted documents trial of David Livingston and Laura Miller, two top aides to former premier Dalton McGuinty, which will conclude when a verdict is announced on Jan. 19.

They have pleaded not guilty to attempted mischief to a computer and unauthorized use of a computer. The charges stemmed from the Liberals’ cancellation of gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga before the 2011 election.

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

Liberal Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, who attended the Tory meeting as an observer, said it’s “sadly ironic and, frankly, disrespectful of the people of Ontario” for the PC leader “to claim to be some kind of paragon of virtue.”

“We know that the Ontario PC Party under Patrick Brown has been rife with internal dissension and we know specifically in Hamilton there is a very, very serious investigation underway,” Del Duca said.

“Patrick Brown, by his behaviour, is making it abundantly clear where he truly stands on accountability and it’s not on the right side of the ledger,” he said.

The criminal probe cast a cloud over an otherwise successful weekend for the Tories, where they promised to reduce hydro rates by 12 per cent and invest $5 billion in the TTC subway network, which will be uploaded to the province.

Brown even theatrically signed a pledge that he would not seek a second term as premier if he failed to deliver on any of his five major commitments.

He unveiled promises to reduce middle-class provincial income tax rates by 22.5 per cent, allow parents to write off up to 75 per cent of daycare, nanny and babysitter costs, and earmark a $1.9-billion commitment over 10 years for mental-health care.

Aboard the same customized bus used by former prime minister Stephen Harper in the 2011 federal campaign — now emblazoned with Brown’s face and the “People’s Guarantee” logo — the PC leader was in Mississauga on Sunday, his first stop on a provincewide tour.

“The ‘People’s Guarantee’ is many commitments, but at its core, it’s very simple — it’s the recognition of the need for change. It’s a promise of accountability to the people of Ontario,” he said against the backdrop of children playing at Little Angels Christian Child Care Centre on Eglinton Ave. W.

To fund the new spending, the Tories would run a $2.8-billion deficit in 2018-19 before returning to the black in 2019-20. That’s in contrast to the Liberals, who have balanced the books and have forecast surpluses for the foreseeable future.

Del Duca warned Sunday that the PC tax reduction scheme would mean $12.275 billion in service cuts.

“Ontario is seen this movie before, first with Harper and then with (former PC premier Mike) Harris,” he said. “And everyone knows the sequel is always worse than the original.”

Read more about: