Former Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown is lashing out at claims he breached the legislature's ethics rules, calling the complaint against him "imaginary" and "make-believe."
Brown rejected allegations that he received income and lavish gifts and conducted business deals without disclosing them to Ontario's integrity commissioner as required by provincial law covering MPPs.
Brown posted a two-page letter to Twitter on Thursday, laying out his response to a complaint filed this week by fellow Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier.
My response to the Integrity Commissioner in regards to Randy Hillier’s smear. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#onpoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/bnJef3OuBt">pic.twitter.com/bnJef3OuBt</a>
—@brownbarrie
Brown's statement called the allegations "either entirely fictional, constituting defamatory baseless allegations … or statements of fact that are both true and perfectly acceptable."
Hillier lodged his complaint on Tuesday. He questioned how Brown could afford the mortgage on his $2.3 million house and alleged Brown violated the rules for MPPs by failing to declare all his sources of income.
Brown's response is that he spent approximately $90,000 of his annual $120,000 after-tax income on the mortgage and lived off the rest.
Hillier also questioned how Brown paid for several trips overseas, including travel with his girlfriend, a Queen's Park intern at the time. Hillier suggested some business people may have covered the costs of the trips. If Brown, his office or the PC party did not paid for the travel, failing to disclose the sponsor would breach the integrity rules.
Brown's statement says it's "simply false" that he accepted a gift of travel. He calls the travel "cultural outreach missions … paid for by the PC Party, approved by the PC Ontario Fund."
Hillier's complaint also referred to a report in the Globe and Mail alleging that PC candidate Jass Johal signed a legal document agreeing to pay Brown $375,000 to buy a stake in a Barrie restaurant called Hooligan's and to buy two million of his Aeroplan miles.
"I decided not to proceed with the transaction, as I was simply not ready to give up my shares in the restaurant," says Brown in his response. "The transaction never happened."
Despite the ethics cloud and the accusations of sexual misconduct that triggered his resignation in January, a PC party vetting committee declared Brown eligible on Wednesday to run for the leadership.
PC members will vote for their party's new leader from March 2 to 8, and the winner will be announced on March 10. Brown is running against Tanya Granic Allen, Christine Elliott, Doug Ford and Caroline Mulroney.
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