O'Brien bribery probe reaches Tory HQ

An aide to Ottawa Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre told Ontario Provincial Police investigators he was aware that Mayor Larry O'Brien had tried to get his opponent Terry Kilrea to drop out of the 2006 mayoral election, and that O'Brien would be helped by a key member of the Conservative party, according to documents released late Thursday.

The new information is contained in a section of a police application for a search warrant that was part of an investigation into accusations that O'Brien tried to bribe Kilrea to drop out of race.

It does not represent a final conclusion by police on whether laws were broken. No charges have been laid.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny lifted a publication ban on portions of the sealed police affidavit.

The document contains accounts of interviews with several witnesses, including John Light, an aide to Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre.

Light told investigators he was offered a job as campaign manager for Larry O'Brien.

When Light said he would prefer to work with Kilrea, he told the OPP, a close associate of O'Brien told him it didn't matter, because Kilrea was being taken care of through Doug Finley, the campaign chair of the Conservative Party of Canada.

A spokesman for the party, Ryan Sparrow, denied Friday that Finley was involved.

"Mr. Finley has never been in touch with any of the people in question, and in fact has never even heard of them. These are malicious rumous that are absolute fiction and completely untrue," Sparrow said.

The search warrant application filed by Sgt. Brian Mason in May stated that he "has reasonable grounds to believe" that two separate offences have been committed under Section 125 of the Criminal Code: "Influencing or negotiating appointments or dealing in offices."

It summarized eight separate interviews with Kilrea, O'Brien, federal cabinet minister John Baird, O'Brien's niece Heather Tessier and others.

Within the summaries, it reveals that Kilrea's wife triggered an investigation by the anti-rackets squad when she handed her husband's statement, containing accusations against O'Brien, to a group that complained to police.

Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, told police he believed Kilrea's wife gave the group her husband's sworn affidavit because she was troubled by rumours that Kilrea had been bribed to withdraw from the mayoral race.

Kilrea had earlier told the Ottawa Citizen that he did not give the labour council his affidavit and the group has neveracknowledged where it got the document.

O'Brien offered job, money to drop out of race: Kilrea

Kilrea's affidavit said that O'Brien offered in July to help Kilrea secure a job on the National Parole Board and to give him $30,000 to cover his campaign expenses if he dropped out of the 2006 mayoral race.

Both Kilrea and O'Brien were competing for votes on right-of-centre platforms in the civic election. Kilrea did drop out of the race, but said he did not receive anything for doing so.

According to the document, Kilrea claimed that at a meeting in July, O'Brien offered to cover his campaign expenses and asked what Kilrea would like to do other than be mayor.

Kilrea mentioned the National Parole Board.

He claimed O'Brien asked, "What if I could make that happen?" and later told Kilrea to contact then Treasury Board president John Baird about the job.

The document states that O'Brien told police that it was Kilrea who brought up the parole board position and that Kilrea wanted O'Brien to buy a website from him.

He also said he didn't remember making any kind of an offer regarding an appointment, but admitted to calling Kilrea after their first meeting to say he'd "screwed up."

CBC reporter Alistair Steele, who examined the police document, said: "Screwed up what or screwed up how isn't clear from the interview [summarized in the document], but O'Brien did tell investigators that he 'didn't have a fundamental understanding of the rules involved at the time.'

"The interview is revealing in another way," Steele told host Kathleen Petty on CBC's Ottawa Morning. "You get a sense here of just what O'Brien may have thought of Kilrea on a personal level. In the document he calls him a buffoon, and he says that he felt of all the candidates, Kilrea was the weakest in terms of intellectual capacity."

The search warrant application was used by police to gain access to the computer hard drive at the home of Tim Tierney, who was Kilrea's webmaster and communications director.

Most of about 45 pages of the search warrant application were released, except for sections that lawyers argued were hearsay and could jeopardize O'Brien's right to a fair trial should charges be laid.