Premier Kathleen Wynne is threatening to sue Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown for defamation after he said she was on “trial” in Sudbury.

Fifteen minutes before Wynne took the stand as a Crown witness in the byelection bribery case on Wednesday morning, her lawyer fired off a letter to Brown demanding an apology.

“You have made a statement about the premier of Ontario that is false and defamatory,” wrote lawyer Jack Siegel of Blaney McMurtry LLP.

“Contrary to your statement, Premier Wynne is not standing trial. Your statement is false and misleading and appears to have been made with the intention to harm the reputation of Ms. Wynne,” continued Siegel.

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“As you should well know by now, especially in light of the notice letter sent to your colleague Bill Walker just last week, the premier is not subject to any charges and will not stand trial for anything,” he said, referring to the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Tory MPP forced to apologize for comments he made about Wynne on Toronto’s AM640.

Siegel is demanding Brown “publish a full retraction of the defamatory statements, to be published by every media outlet that has republished them, and distributed to every media outlet that had a representative in attendance.”

Two Star reporters and a columnist were in the scrum along with journalists from CBC, The Canadian Press, Radio-Canada, Global, CP24, CTV, TFO, QP Briefing, Queen’s Park Today, the Globe and Mail, Fairchild, CHCH, and Newstalk 1010.

“We’ve got a sitting premier sitting in trial and answering questions about allegations of bribery,” Brown, who is a lawyer, told the assembled press throng Tuesday outside the House.

“I hope that the premier will give us answers. We’re not getting them, in the Legislature. Maybe when she stands trial,” he continued.

The statements at issue were only broadcast on CHCH.

Her lawyer, who also wants Brown to “refrain from making any further defamatory statements whatsoever about Premier Wynne,” has given him until 5 p.m. Thursday to apologize or, he said, the dispute will escalate.

He reminded Brown that Wynne took similar libel action against former PC leader Tim Hudak before the 2014 election, noting “the arduous and expensive road that this took toward resolution.”

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Brown skipped the Legislature’s daily question period on Wednesday, so it was left to Deputy PC Leader Steve Clark to respond.

“The premier of Ontario is testifying at a trial. There will be a statement from our lawyers to the government lawyers. That’s how the file will be handled,” said Clark.

But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Brown has shot himself in the foot and should “absolutely” say sorry to Wynne.

“People are human beings. You make a mistake, you apologize. There’s not enough of that in politics,” said Horwath.

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