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There is a prima facie case that two Ontario Liberals violated the Elections Act in the Sudbury byelection job bribery scandal, Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa says in an explosive report released Thursday.

Essensa has now officially turned the matter over to the provinces Attorney General for further investigation by justice officials.

Having reviewed the evidence and findings from this regulatory investigation, I am of the opinion that the actions of Gerry Lougheed Jr. and Patricia Sorbara amount to apparent contraventions of subsection 96.1(e) of the Election Act, Essensas report says. Consequently, I have reported this matter to the Attorney General of Ontario in accordance with section 4.0.2 of the Election Act.

The Chief Electoral Officer launched an investigation after receiving opposition party complaints that Sorbara and Lougheed offered Sudbury Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier a job or appointment to abandon his run for the byelection nomination to make way for their preferred candidate, federal NDP MP Glenn Thibeault, in contravention of the Election Act.

Essensa said he is satisfied that there is more than a fair probability that the law was broken, and so proceeded with the unprecedented action.

No Chief Electoral Officer of Ontario has ever conducted a regulatory investigation into allegations of bribery or ever reported an apparent contravention of the home statues of my office to the Attorney General, Essensa said in his report.

PC MPP Steve Clark immediately asked Premier Kathleen Wynne to demand Sorbara step aside as the premiers deputy chief of staff, and that Lougheed be removed from the Sudbury police board.

If you stand with these two, youre going to fall with these two, Clark told Wynne during Question Period.

Wynne, who was cleared by Essensas investigation of any Elections Act violation, said she would not remove Sorbara from her position.

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Wynne's Liberals broke law: Election chief

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, February 19, 2015 10:47AM EST Last Updated Thursday, February 19, 2015 4:19PM EST

TORONTO -- Two Ontario Liberals, including the premier's deputy chief of staff, appear to have contravened a bribery section of the Election Act, the province's electoral officer said Thursday in an "unprecedented" finding.

An Elections Ontario investigation found there is evidence that Premier Kathleen Wynne's deputy chief of staff, Pat Sorbara, and a local Liberal organizer offered a would-be candidate a job or appointment to get him to step aside in a recent byelection in Sudbury.

For weeks the premier has refused opposition calls to remove Sorbara from her role while under investigation and the government has said it is unable to step in to remove Gerry Lougheed as chair of the city's police services board.

The demands grew louder Thursday after Elections Ontario's conclusions were tabled in the legislature just minutes before question period, apparently catching the premier off guard.

"We all just got this information," Wynne said more than half a dozen times. "We are taking it under advisement...What I will not do is take rash advice from the other side of the floor until I've had an opportunity to consider all of the information."

The Liberals were quick to point out that Elections Ontario did not implicate Wynne herself nor Glenn Thibeault, the former NDP MP who won the Feb. 5 byelection for the Liberals.

Greg Essensa, the chief electoral officer of Ontario, concluded that Sorbara and Lougheed's actions "constitute an apparent contravention" of a section of the Election Act concerning "bribery in connection with inducing a person to become, refrain from becoming, or withdrawing from being a candidate."

Essensa called the circumstances "unprecedented."

"No chief electoral officer of Ontario has ever conducted a regulatory investigation into allegations of bribery or ever reported an apparent contravention of the Election Act or the Election Finances Act to the Ministry of the Attorney General," he said in his statement.

Original post:
Liberals apparently contravened Election Act

Liberals Stop Helping part 3
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Liberals Stop Helping part 3 - Video

Liberals should embrace Rudd-style party reform 04:27
Reforms that make it harder to depose leaders- similar to those enacted in the dying days of Kevin Rudd #39;s leadership- should be embraced by the Liberal party...

By: Wedel Sharon

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Liberals should embrace Rudd-style party reform 04:27 - Video

On the first sitting day of the House of Commons since her defection, former Conservative MP Eve Adams kept a low profile. Anyone looking for a preview of how she would stack up in debate against Finance Minister Joe Oliver in the GTA riding of Eglinton-Lawrence will have to wait.

But it will take more than a few bouts of sparring in question period to put Liberal minds to rest over the latest addition to Justin Trudeaus caucus.

A week after the Liberal leader rolled out the red carpet for Adamss floor crossing the episode remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma for most Liberals.

On that score a weekend trip to Vancouver that featured a handful of conversations with veteran party insiders on the West Coast mostly confirmed that the move has baffled Liberals from coast to coast.

Those insiders like most observers start from the premise that Trudeaus team of advisers is a seasoned one. In their minds, such battle-hardened strategists would or should have expected both the editorial backlash and the internal discontent that attended the decision to bring Adams and by the same token former Stephen Harper confidant Dimitri Soudas on board.

Few buy the line that Adams is so ideally placed to take on Oliver on the battlefield of the Conservative income-splitting measure as to be worth her weight in political gold.

As flawed as the policy of allowing parents to split their income for tax purposes may be, it does not have the legs to move mountains of votes that a tax hike for instance would have.

In the same breath, most of them dismiss the notion that Soudas has such invaluable insights on what makes a now-familiar prime minister tick on a debate podium as suggested among others by former Conservative minister Stockwell Day as to make signing up his fiance an irresistible proposition.

If anything, Adamss inclusion on the Trudeau team has more to do with a dogged Liberal quest for deterrence on the field of dirty tricks than with making inroads in voting intentions.

Conservative spin doctors have been quietly bragging about having collected dirt on Trudeau ever since he ran for the leadership.

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Liberals Eve Adams play a defensive move in attack-ad ...