TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government has backed down on its attempt to appoint a new ombudsman and has handed Andre Marin another five-year term.
Marin had been the subject of a smear campaign by unnamed Liberals after the government announced it wanted a new process for hiring the ombudsman and the privacy and environmental commissioners.
The existing privacy and environmental commissioners were quickly reappointed, but Marin was left dangling with just a six-month contract extension.
The opposition parties made it clear they wanted to reappoint Marin, but the Liberals kept insisting they wanted to interview more prospective candidates.
After he was forced to twice interview for his job, the Liberals agreed today to let Marin serve another five years as ombudsman.
Premier Dalton McGuinty at one point had to tell Liberals to back off their criticisms of Marin, and said the ombudsman had just been doing his job of pointing out government faults.
