TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne says her libel case against two Progressive Conservatives is not the reason her government is making changes to a bill on so-called SLAPPs -- strategic lawsuits against public participation.
Wynne filed a $2-million lawsuit last spring against then-PC leader Tim Hudak and energy critic Lisa MacLeod over comments that Wynne "oversaw and possibly ordered the criminal destruction of documents" related to the $1.1-billion cancellation of two gas plants prior to the 2011 election.
Media website Canadaland noted Tuesday that a reintroduced Liberal government bill to crack down on SLAPPs, which use the threat lawsuits to intimidate opponents, no longer contains a provision applying it to lawsuits already before the court.
Wynne's office says the only reasons the change was made was for procedural fairness to people with cases in progress and because debate on the first version of the bill "became clouded by the interests of a few current litigants."
MacLeod said during question period this week that Wynne's lawsuit against her qualifies as a SLAPP, meant to muzzle the opposition.
Wynne said today that her lawsuit against Hudak and MacLeod is in place because she believes "it's really important to debate the truth," and she says not only were the allegations they made untrue, they knew they were untrue.
