The Ontario government will foot the bill for Mike Harris's $15-million libel lawsuit against The Globe and Mail, Management Board Chairman David Tsubouchi confirmed yesterday.
"If it's a premier or a cabinet minister . . . and legal matters arise, then they do have authorization to proceed to set the record straight, so the government will pay."
That means Ontario taxpayers will be on the hook for legal costs, Liberal MPP Michael Bryant said.
"The Premier's Office is going to have to pick up the tab when all is said and done and this will cost probably hundreds of thousands of dollars."
But Mr. Tsubouchi said the government would obviously recoup the money spent on lawyers if Mr. Harris wins the case.
Alberta taxpayers ended up with a legal bill of almost $800,000 after Stockwell Day reached an out-of-court settlement last year with Red Deer lawyer Lorne Goddard, who sued Mr. Day, provincial treasurer at the time, for defamation.
Mr. Harris is suing the newspaper over a Dec. 14 story by Queen's Park bureau chief Richard Mackie on the unfinished business facing the Premier, who has just one month left in office before he retires as leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
The story touched on the controversy surrounding the Premier's possible role in a standoff between native protesters and the Ontario Provincial Police at Ipperwash Provincial Park 6½ years ago, soon after Mr. Harris took office.
In a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court, Mr. Harris says The Globe article implied that he gave orders to the OPP to march on the park to end the protest; that his orders led to the shooting of an unarmed man; and that he is responsible for the man's death.
The family of Dudley George, the protester who was shot and killed by an OPP officer, has named Mr. Harris as a defendant in a wrongful-death lawsuit and said it will ask the court for intervenor status in the suit against The Globe. The Premier has denied direct involvement in the police action.
Mr. Bryant said the Premier was sending a powerful signal to critics who may think twice about writing about Ipperwash for fear they might be sued, too.
"Mike Harris may have been annoyed that the wind-up report on his final term was not a puff piece, but you don't sue somebody for that," Mr. Bryant said. "What was reported I would repeat outside the legislature any place and time."
Mr. Harris refused to answer reporters' questions about the lawsuit as he accompanied Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on a trade mission to Russia and Germany.
"I think the lawsuit and statement of claim are very straightforward and self-explanatory and the reasons are covered there," he said during a stop in Munich. "I'm not going to repeat the claims. They are there and they are in writing and I've seen them in media reports and I stand by them."