In my post about the weird mess in London, Ontario, I pointed out that it looks like the director of the federal Liberal Party in Ontario, David Pretlove, tried to prevent an investigation into the apparent theft of $15,000 from the London federal riding association. What was disturbing was that Pretlove attempted to suppress the investigation that ultimately resulted in charges being laid against Suzan Pawlak, the former treasurer for the London riding association, and at the time Pretlove made his offer, one of Pretlove's employees.

Given that at the time no one knew who Pawlak was or that she would be facing charges, Pretlove's prescience looked very suspicious. The obvious question to ask is whether Pretlove actually knew Pawlak was involved when he made the offer, and if so, why try to suppress the investigation.

I'm not the only one wondering. The NDP has issued a press release calling on Stephane Dion to suspend both Pretlove and Pawlak until these questions are answered.

From the NDP on the issue of David Pretlove, Suzan Pawlak, and the stolen money from the London federal Liberal riding association:

Liberals are still resisting accountability and courting scandal, says NDP MP Paul Dewar. Dewar is demanding Liberal Leader Stephane Dion show real leadership and suspend his Director of Finance and Administration, pending the outcome of a court case involving the alleged theft of $15,000.

Dewar issued his challenge after learning the former treasurer of the federal Liberal association in Elgin-Middlesex-London, Susan Powlak, had been charged with 42 counts of fraud and uttering forged documents.

The London Free Press reports that David Pretlove, then interim Federal Liberal regional director responsible for Ontario: "offered to send cheques to local officials to cover losses. But Feaver [the riding association president] and other officials opted instead to call in police. Feaver called the offer from Pretlove 'ill-advised' at the association's annual meeting late last month." (London Free Press, Tues., July 17, 2007)

"The local liberal president says it was 'ill advised.' I'd call it cause for a formal investigation," said Dewar. "You can't cover the loss, cook and close the books and not call the cops. Financial shenanigans make ordinary Canadians lose trust in our political system."

Dewar called on the Liberal leader to address the issue immediately.

"It is baffling why Mr. Dion hasn't dealt with this issue. He needs to learn the lessons of the sponsorship scandal. You can't simply turn a blind eye to serious allegations like this," said Dewar. "Mr. Pretlove needs to be suspended immediately, pending the outcome of the legal case against his former employee Ms. Powlak."

Notice that in the last paragraph Pawlak is identified as Pretlove's former employee. As far as I can tell, I am the only source that has published that information. I guess I have some readership from that side of the floor. That's nice to know. Also nice to know the NDP will trust information developed on a Tory blog. But do you know what would really be nice? It would be nice to get some credit once in a while. Oh well.

I don't expect any moves from Stephane Dion in the following days. Previous experience suggests he is not very proactive, and with his weak hold as leader of the federal Liberals, any action opens him up to attacks from within the Liberal Party, either from Pretlove's supporters or his detractors.

The real pressure will come when the media starts to run with this story in earnest. First thing is to understand just what drove Pretlove to make his offer. Even if Pawlak is innocent (and she has only been charged so far, so was have to presume she is), that she was employed in his office when he made the unusual offer is such a coincidence that Pretlove needs to explain exactly what motivated him.

Of course, if Pawlak was involved in the missing funds as police have charged, that leads to even more sticky questions for Pretlove. The most charitable possibility is that he was trying to help out a valued employee in a misguided way. But far more troubling is the possibility, and this is very bad, that there was a reason why Pretlove personally couldn't afford for an investigation to take place, so much so that he was forced to make such a bizarre offer in desperation. Perhaps a relationship of some sort with Pawlak. Or perhaps some link to the missing money.

Check out other entries from the David Pretlove category
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Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:42 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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