Police board votes to keep Lougheed as chair

Members of the Greater Sudbury Police Services board have voted to keep Gerry Lougheed Jr. as board chair, at least until the conclusion of an OPP investigation into the Andrew Olivier scandal.

Police are considering criminal charges in the case in which Olivier, a former Liberal candidate in Sudbury, alleges Lougheed and Liberal campaign director Pat Sorbara offered him a job or an appointment in exchange for withdrawing his candidacy in the Feb. 5 byelection.

In recordings released to back up Olivier's claim, Lougheed and Sorbara can be heard telling Olivier that if he agreed to support Glenn Thibeault – who won the byelection – he could expect a job or an appointment.

Lougheed, a well-known Liberal party fundraiser in the city, has said he had no authority to offer Olivier anything. On the recordings, he says Sorbara and Premier Kathleen Wynne want to talk with him about a job or an appointment.

On election day, an OPP document was published in which police say they believe an offence occurred. The document was part of the court process the OPP had to go through to get Olivier to hand over the recordings of the two conversations. Olivier also spoke with Wynne, but says she called him when he was in the elevator at his family home and wasn't able to record the conversation.

A quadriplegic, Olivier says he records all of his conversations because he can't take notes. In his conversation with Olivier, Lougheed appears to suggest some sort of reward if he withdrew he candidacy.

“So I come to you, on behalf of the premier, and on behalf of, yes, Thibeault, more indirectly, to ask you if you would consider stepping down, even more than that Andrew, nominating him,” Lougheed says in the recording. “In the course of that deliberation, the premier wants to talk to you. They would like to present to you options in terms of appointments, jobs, whatever, that you and her and (Liberal campaign director) Pat Sorbara could talk about it.”

In a Janaury interview with NorthernLife.ca, Lougheed dismissed calls for him to step down from the NDP and Progressive Conservatives.

“I think it's all about politics,” Lougheed said. “I have no intention of stepping down. If there's any wrongdoing found, I will voluntarily step down at that time.”

However, he said if the investigation concludes he did something wrong, he will resign.

“If I did do something wrong, I would be the first to step down,” he said. “At this point and time, there is no wrongdoing and I will maintain my position.”