Crown urges 6 months jail for ex-aide David Livingston; defence wants discharge
TORONTO — The sentencing hearing for a former top Ontario political aide caught up in the province’s gas plants scandal heard glowing accounts of his character on Monday as the prosecution called for a six-month jail term while the defence urged a conditional discharge.
As former premier Dalton McGuinty’s chief of staff, prosecutor Tom Lemon said, David Livingston was the “premier’s designate” who wilfully ignored advice from senior bureaucrats in thwarting democratic accountability.
Livingston faces sentencing for illegal use of a computer — a second guilty finding was stayed Monday. The conviction relates to his destruction of potentially embarrassing documents about the Liberal government’s costly decision to cancel two gas plants before the 2011 provincial election.
“The course of conduct underlying Livingston’s guilt was a planned and deliberate attempt to destroy retainable records by a sophisticated government actor in a very senior position of public trust and authority,” Lemon said. “Such a person must be held to a high standard. The public is entitled to expect nothing less.”