Two Chief-of-Staffs serving under former Liberal Premier Robert Ghiz [See the attached 2011 email obtained in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, being an email sent from the outgoing Chief “Chris LeClair” to greenhorn-incoming Chief, “Allan Campbell,” titled: “War stories and other lies”], both of whom were secretly involved in the “off-the-books” Sheridan-led “egaming” scandal way back then, well…they’re back in the news!

 

That’s if you call my FB feed news…you likely won’t hear about any of this on CBC, or read about it in the “Guardian” of the little Galaxy we call PEI.

 

Both Campbell and LeClair recently resurfaced as named Defendants in a lawsuit filed in the PEI Supreme Court by Paul Maines against Dennis King et. al., [See the attached front-page of the “Statement of Claim” with all the initial names, of which there were many, see also an attached capture of the “Supplemental Statement of Claim” adding Jeffrey Warren Reynolds (the infamous “flip-flopping” whistleblower) as a Defendant, filed after he apparently went “rogue” on Maines (after going “rogue” on the secret egaming group assembled by Dennis King)].

 

A more recent FOI request [also attached] reveals that the PEI government is currently FOOTING the legal bills for LeClair and Campbell with this Dennis King case.

 

“Why?” You might ask?

 

That’s a really good question for which I don’t have a very good answer.

 

It just don’t seem proper though!

And it don’t seem moral or legal to me neither!

 

And it don’t seem like it’s the kind of thing that would happen if you or I were being sued for trying to scheme tax dollars into a trough with someone in the government and got caught, even if that was the Premier….would you not agree?

Neither of these two individuals have been employees of the PEI government for many years. Nor does this lawsuit against Dennis King, Campbell, LeClair, et al. involve anything that happened back then with egaming, when they were employees with government.

 

Campbell and LeClair have each been named in this lawsuit for allegedly being involved with events associated with the next generation “egaming scandal” in PEI….events allegedly happening just a couple of years ago under the direction of Conservative Leader Dennis King , not Liberal Premiers Ghiz and MacLaughlan.

That’s pretty much the meat and potatoes of this news.

 

For more of the backstory on Campbell and LeClair’s involvement with this King lawsuit, get the full-meal deal, order the gravy side-order, and keep reading.

It’s a pretty big bowl of gravy [it’s a long gravy train they ride], but reading on will make the potatoes and meat a little more digestible.

 

But just to be clear, (and for liability purposes, I’m already being sued in the PEI Supreme Court for $50,000 for a post I wrote) by “digestible” I mean more intelligible, more understandable, definitely not more palatable.

I’m not saying it won’t make you sick to your stomach if you proceed… in fact, I’d highly recommend stuffing a box of gravol in your backpack if you’re going to hike on any further….. oh yeah….and take some Anti-Giant-Blood-Sucking Tick repellent, you’ll need lots of that!

 

 

You may have even forgotten that there’s a lawsuit underway in the PEI Supreme Court proceeding against Dennis King (as a private citizen sitting as Premier).

It alleges he abused his position by secretly scheming to set up an online gambling outfit, using his office and inside information and powers therein to gain the kind of first-mover advantage on a looming lucrative scam, putting a little funnel in place for a new source of easy revenue for select members of the Insider Club.

 

The “Statement of Claim” alleges that Dennis King used non-government email addresses with a bunch of other secretly-scheming Insiders, meeting and discussing with them how to proceed to set up an egaming money-making machine for themselves with an online casino of some kind.

 

There was never any need for such a “local” PEI company to be put in place, or for PEI involvement at all for that matter… that’s why we have the Atlantic Lottery Commission (ALC).

 

Everything is already set up to handle single sports betting with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation now.

 

 

In fact you would think that if there were morally-reputable people representing the Island on the Atlantic Lottery Commission Board that they would intervene and never allow such a thing to happen.

 

The problem there, of course, is that all three Island reps on the Board for the Atlantic Lottery Commission are closely-tied to the insider Club, and in particular, Dennis King’s Inner Circle. One board member, Shaun McIsaac, a Chartered Accountant, was allegedly at that secret meeting in the cottage in Rustico…he’s still on the ALC Board!

Jordan Brown, former Attorney General under Premier Mclaughlin, allegedly told Jeffrey Warren Reynolds that if King was smart he’d get rid of his plants on the Atlantic Lottery Commission, [see attached], but they’ve only removed Dan Campbell to date.

 

And for good reason, because he is right at the center of all the corruption with the big $50 million egaming lawsuit, especially with the known cover-up of materially-relevant documents that were never disclosed in court, nor to me in several FOI requests!

 

No matter.

 

I knew as soon as I saw the Executive Council Order on December 23rd, 2020, [attached] issued while the rest of us were on holidays hanging up stockings in anticipation of the birth of Jesus and some dude coming down the chimney, when we were doing that, the back-room boys were busy little beavers somewhere in downtown Charlottetown knitting a giant stocking to hang up for themselves.

The Insider Club’s patented “cash-cow” radar-detector had already picked up on the location of a huge bovine busting with bucks heading to PEI long before it ever swam ashore. That only happened once Canada legalized single sports betting months later.

 

They saw bessy coming in time to give themselves a Christmas present, in preparation for the prosperous new year they saw looming for themselves on the horizon.

 

Some of the same players from over a decade ago who were secretly scheming to set up a new egaming hub when it was still ILLEGAL in Canada under Wes Sheraton apparently could never shake their obsession to get their hands on the teats of that neverending flow of cash from the cow of their dreams.

 

Then Voila! Canada legalizes single sports betting, and all of a sudden Premier King is being sued for trying to do what Wes Sheridan tried and failed to do back in 2012.

 

And who comes crawling out of the woods?

 

A goodly number of the same people from way back then that’s who, including Campbell, LeClair, and a key gamer who worked with Chris Leclair, Keith Laslop, all allegedly now part of this new group trying to do with this form of online gambling that is now ‘legal’, what Wes Sheridan tried and failed to do when it was illegal over a decade ago.

 

In fact, LeClair actually left his position as Robert Ghiz’s Chief of Staff in October 2011, [the most powerful position in government (according to LeClair in his email to his replacement, Alan Campbell, who reached out to LeClair for guidance)] also noting how the Chief-of-Staff could fly completely under the radar, never being mentioned in documents!

 

Oh joy!!

 

If this was the most powerful position in government, why in the heck would Chris LeClair leave it?

 

Leclair left to be a key part of McInnis Cooper Law Firm’s secret e-gaming group that then Minister of Finance Wes Sheridan set up “off the books,” founding his own consulting company, Policy Intel.

 

I’ve written dozens of articles about that Wes Sheraton e-gaming scheme; Chris Leclair’s name appears in just about all of them.

 

[NOTE: You can read them on my website. I also have 14 articles detailing background on the current lawsuit against Dennis King. On the homepage there’s a main tab called “egaming” and there’s a drop-down with different egaming article series under that, including the Dennis King lawsuit].

 

You might also want to catch up on the decade’s-long $50 million original e-gaming lawsuit story… it’s also still before the PEI Supreme Court.

 

Although there hasn’t been a peep for a long time now from our local media on the King lawsuit, I can assure you that when it does go public, which I’m thinking shouldn’t be too far-off in the future, but one can’t predict these things with courts, well, you’ll want to be up to snuff!

Whenever big money flows into (or through) PEI, things start happening fast inside our local “Insider Club.”

 

They scheme to somehow build a new trough, which usually entails setting up corporate entities that can claim to be a part of the necessary infrastructure for that program or project or whatever.

They “stamp” something for a big fee, so they get what they believe they are entitled to as “bona fide” Insiders, lifetime card-carrying trough members.

It doesn’t always involve just hiring someone at minimum wage who sits behind a numbered company “stamping” and moving things along in the process, mind you.

 

Sometimes it’s more complex, such as I’m sure was the case with this online casino scheme that got abruptly interrupted when Jeffrey Warren Reynolds went rogue on them and leaked a ton of information to Paul Maine’s, who then launched his lawsuit.

I’ve already written a bunch of articles on that lawsuit as I’ve mentioned, but just so you realize this isn’t frivolous or vexatious, I am including a link to the Affidavit that a Private Investigator from Toronto filed in conjunction with this lawsuit against Dennis King.

 

It’s an intriguing story, King vying to succeed where Sheridan failed, “out-corrupting” him with all the secret meetings in restaurants and private cottages at night… a Stewart-McKelvey lawyer and Dennis King handler [Margaret-Anne Walsh] picking up the tab at Sim’s for members of this alleged ‘gamesys’ fraudster club proposal….it has all the juicy ingredients to make for a pretty exciting netflix series actually.

It also has such an exciting cast of characters, all interesting, some powerful in the shadows like Chinese Czar Frank Zhou; Darlene Compton’s husband Russ Compton; and of course Allan Campbell and Chris LeClair!

Too bad it’s not fiction, and we’re the victims of this sordid, fraudulent affair!

A couple of final caveats:

 

1. Despite what I would consider to be some pretty diligent rock-overturning on my part, beyond the call of duty for an investigative reporter I’d say, I was nonetheless unable to find a document I suspected former Premier Robert Ghiz secretly authorized, granting perpetual, eternal indemnity to all his Chiefs-of-Staffs from having to pay legal fees for any possible personal legal trouble their propensity for corruption might bring them in the future as private citizens after leaving government….a parting gift I was sure I’d find.

Didn’t.

That means King paying LeClair and Campbell’s bills is nasty business, illegal and immoral, and should STOP.

What say ye leader of the Official Opposition?

 

2. Also, having no luck with my research into what particular War Chris Leclair and Alan Campbell fought in together….sorry.

 

Finally, if you are able please consider sending a modest contribution by email transfer to kja321@gmail.com to support my investigative work, which is full-time and unremunerated.