TORONTO - The Ontario Liberals are mounting a smear campaign against outspoken ombudsman Andre Marin in order to sabotage his chances of keeping the post, opposition critics charged Monday.
While the government flatly denied the claim, New Democrat Peter Kormos pointed to media reports of Liberal insiders questioning Marin's expenses as proof there's a plan afoot to rid the government of one of its most vocal critics.
"It's very disturbing because the campaign being conducted, the comments -- the slanderous, the malicious, the scurrilous comments being made about Mr. Marin -- all with Liberal sources, appears to be an effort on the part of the government to derail Mr. Marin's bid to be reappointed," Kormos said.
The government is also sabotaging the hiring process by disclosing information about an all-party panel tasked with selecting the ombudsman, Kormos said.
Government house leader Monique Smith confirmed over the weekend that the panel reached an impasse and couldn't agree on who should get the job.
The competition may not have attracted enough qualified candidates because it appears that the job wasn't advertised very long, she said. So she's asked Speaker Steve Peters to form a new panel and post the position more broadly.
Smith's concern about the ads is puzzling when the government has already admitted that about 50 people applied for the job, Kormos said.
"All three parties were represented on the committee, and it wouldn't have been advertised in that way if there weren't unanimity about that," he said.
"So there you go. Mr. Marin's been slandered, and the Liberals seem to be trying to dodge or scuttle this process because they don't like the results of it."
Smith insists the government isn't trying to smear Marin and replace him with former Liberal MP Susan Whelan.
"I think it's a lot of rhetoric from Mr. Kormos and he's known for that," she said.
That failed to convince Conservative house leader John Yakabuski, who suggested that Liberals grumbling about Marin are getting their marching orders from the top.
"No one there so much as blows their nose without the consent of the premier's office," he told the legislature.
"And if Liberal insiders are giving quotes ... to the newspapers on matters as sensitive as the appointment or the reappointment or the process involving the appointment of the ombudsman, you know they have the blessing of the power of the premier's office."
Kormos lodged a complaint with Peters, charging that by divulging details about the all-party panel, the government is guilty of contempt of parliament -- a transgression that used to carry a stiff penalty.
"It's regrettable because people aren't sent to the tower anymore, they aren't imprisoned," he said.
"In doing some of the research, I found that a rather romantic image, especially in the context of this particular dispute."
Smith dismissed the claim, saying there's nothing wrong about what she said over the weekend.
There's been a lot of public talk about the appointment process, including comments from Kormos himself, she said.
"The process has not been in any way sabotaged," she said. "The process remains the same."
Marin has dismissed the allegations of spending abuses as "silly gossip," saying his travel expenses back to his Ottawa home don't break any rules.
He's also rebuffed accusations contained in an anonymous letter that he allowed a toxic work environment to flourish in his office.
Two complaints have been made against Marin's office since 2008, according to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.
Marin, environmental commissioner Gord Miller and integrity commissioner Lynn Morrison were all asked to compete for their jobs when the government decided not to renew their contracts.
But Marin is the only one who hasn't been recommended for re-appointment, sparking accusations that the Liberals are trying to silence the man who's long been a thorn in their side.
Marin's flair for the spotlight and attention-grabbing quotes often irritated politicians and staffers whose files ended up in the ombudsman's crosshairs.
He openly feuded with former health minister David Caplan over the cancer drug Avastin after Marin declared that cutting off public funding after 16 treatments "verges on cruelty."
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has yet to recover from Marin's damning 2007 report on insider wins, in which he accused unscrupulous retailers of collecting tens of millions of dollars in "dishonest" winnings and the agency of turning a blind eye to the problem.
Then in the wake of the eHealth scandal over untendered contracts, Marin warned that the government's inability to oversee its own agencies, boards and commissions was turning them into "Frankenstein's monster" -- a volatile combination of parts that will rise up and wreak "untold havoc" on their creator.
Premier Dalton McGuinty has called Marin's work "helpful" and noted that the government has implemented many of the changes he recommended.
