Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has apologized for comments he made about MPP Vic Fedeli in his book Takedown.

Brown issued the apology on Friday, March 13, in a statement on the website of Takedown publisher Optimum Publishing International.

In 2019, Fedeli, who is Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, filed an $8 million defamation lawsuit against Brown and Optimum Publishing over the comments in the book.

The lawsuit’s statement of claim, which has not been proven in court, said that “numerous false and defamatory statements” were made about Fedeli in the book and in later media interviews by Brown.

In the apology, Brown said in the book “and thereafter, I made statements about a complaint of inappropriate conduct made against Vic Fedeli by a former member of my staff when I was leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.”

Brown said he didn’t “intend to suggest or imply that Vic Fedeli had in fact engaged in any such conduct or that he had in fact acted in any way inappropriately.”

“To Vic Fedeli and his family: I regret if anyone understood me to be saying the opposite and I apologize for any misunderstanding,” Brown said in the statement.

Ministry of Economic Development spokesperson Robert Gibson said he had no comment at this time on whether Brown's apology would end Fedeli's lawsuit.