Amended “Statement of Claim” in E-gaming lawsuit filed in PEI Supreme Court on June 14, 2018

If you have a bit of time on your hands and you really want to understand just how irresponsible premier MacLauchlan and his Liberal government is being with their cavalier and dismissive comments regarding the Capital Markets Technology (CMT) e-gaming lawsuit, then read the updated Statement of Claim  filed in Court today.

But first, consider one  such dismissive statement from former Minister of Finance, Allan Roach, and a more recent comment on the e-gaming lawsuit from premier MacLauchlan.

[November 24, 2017 – HANSARD, p. 414]

Mr. Roach: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it’s important and I want to remind everyone in here and certainly at this side, that this government is representing the people of Prince Edward Island. Here we have a group [CMT] who’ve, yet again, filed another frivolous lawsuit against the Province of Prince Edward Island. I would like to remind the member across the floor that the court in PEI has already tossed out a previous similar lawsuit. At that time, and I’m going to quote the court at that time, what they call the statement of claim. The court said: it’s – Mr. Fox: Forty seconds. Mr. Roach: – a long rambling narrative – Mr. Myers: Talk about rambling. Mr. Roach: – replete with irrelevant and immaterial facts; evidence, opinion, argument and speculation.

[May 22, 2018 – HANSARD, p. 2896]

When PC MLA Jamie Fox tabled my Investigative Report on the destruction of e-gaming records in the legislative assembly on May 22nd – and directed a series of questions to premier MacLauchlan on the findings in my report – one of those questions was as follows:

MR. FOX: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll get to that investigation in a minute. Both premier Ghiz and the current Deputy Minister of Finance have been named as defendants in the $50 million e-gaming lawsuit, along with two of the officials whose records were illegally destroyed on the orders of premier Ghiz and the Deputy Minister of Finance. Question to the Premier: Are you not at all concerned that laws were circumvented, ignored, and broken so brazenly?”

SPEAKER: The hon. Premier.

PREMIER MACLAUCHLAN: The Auditor General has looked into this matter and came back with her report and she spoke directly to the issue that the hon. member is raising.

The RCMP reported last month, after conducting on the order of 50 interviews, that there was no evidence of criminality, or any grounds for laying charges. The lawsuit that the hon. member is referring to is presumably before the courts. It seems to show up from time-to-time. But let me say that it’s been talked about in this House before and I think the best approach for that lawsuit is to let it to proceed on its own merits.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker

Well, it looks like that lawsuit has showed up again!

I suspect that what the Ghiz government did with the e-gaming file will eventually be known and regarded as one of the most corrupt and self-serving escapades every undertaken by a provincial government in Canada. It was beyond scandalous, and despite promises to “do things differently,” premier MacLauchlan has dedicated his efforts to protecting his predecessor and continuing the cover-up.  As Aldous Huxley once famously stated: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you…..mad!”