TORONTO - Attorney General Chris Bentley flatly denied opposition allegations Thursday that the Liberal government was interfering in an OPP disciplinary hearing involving Commissioner Julian Fantino and, in turn, accused the NDP of interfering in the case with their comments.
Brian Gover, Fantino's lawyer at the Police Services Act hearing for two senior OPP officers, said Wednesday that he had support from senior counsel in the Ministry of the Attorney General to have the adjudicator, Justice Leonard Montgomery, recuse himself from the case.
On Thursday, NDP Leader Howard Hampton told the legislature Gover's claims of support for his motion to get rid of the adjudicator sounded like inappropriate government interference in the OPP hearing.
"This sounds like the Ministry of the Attorney General is interfering in this hearing," charged Hampton.
"All the justice is trying to do is hear the evidence, but it sounds as if counsel representing the Ministry of the Attorney General don't want him to hear the evidence. What is going on here?"
Bentley told Hampton he was off base, and chastised the NDP leader -- himself a former attorney general -- for making comments about an ongoing hearing.
"You're wrong. Period. You're wrong," Bentley said in the legislature.
"They're trying to have a fair hearing on the basis of what is going on in the proceeding, and that fair hearing is not being assisted by the extracted commentary by (Hampton)."
Outside the legislature, Bentley dismissed suggestions his office was trying to interfere in the Police Services Act hearing.
"Of course not, and I'm not going to take the invitation of the leader of the NDP and do it by commenting on the hearing that's going on," he said.
"That's exactly what we're not going to do. We're not going to interfere with the hearing."
When pressed during Wednesday's hearing to support his claim that the Attorney General's office supported his motion to have Montgomery recuse himself, Gover responded by naming senior ministry lawyers with whom he said he had spoken about the issue.
Bentley wouldn't confirm nor deny those conversations with his staff had taken place, but insisted there had never been a decision made to support the motion to remove Montgomery from the OPP hearing.
"The ministry hasn't taken a position on an application that is still before the adjudicator," was all Bentley would say when asked about specific lawyers at his office that Gover named.
The controversy stems from Fantino's earlier testimony at the hearing for OPP Supt. Ken MacDonald and Insp. Alison Jevons, who are accused of neglect of duty and deceit relating to an investigation they conducted into a complaint about another OPP officer caught up in a domestic dispute.
At one point during the hearing on Oct. 17, Fantino appeared to change his testimony after a lunch break, raising questions about whether he had been tipped during the recess to apparent discrepancies in his evidence.
"It's upsetting and it's something I'll have to deal with when I come to do my thing," Montgomery said that day about Fantino's seemingly differing statements.
On Wednesday, Gover said Montgomery's remarks amounted to accusing Fantino of professional misconduct, something he claimed had left a "stain" on the commissioner's reputation, and moved that the justice recuse himself from the case.
Montgomery adjourned the hearing until Nov. 10.
