Ex-staffer’s parents allege cover-up of allegations against former PC leader
Affidavits filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court contain allegations that a young Progressive Conservative Party researcher and her family were muzzled after allegations were made of sexual misconduct against then-leader Jamie Baillie.
The affidavits are part of a court challenge by Cumberland North MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, for whom Kaitlin Saxton worked after leaving the PC Party. The court action is in response to efforts by the now Progressive Conservative government to have Smith-McCrossin kicked out of the legislature.
Saxton died two years ago of a brain hemorrhage.
Baillie was forced out as PC leader in January 2018 after the party had an independent investigator look into allegations of sexual misconduct.
“While we never learned all the details from Kait, we did eventually learn that she was the victim of some sort of sexual assault . . . by Jamie Baillie,” reads an affidavit filed in Supreme Court in Amherst on Friday by Michael and Kathryn Saxton
The Chronicle Herald reached out to Baillie on Monday morning and received a written response from spokesman Parker Donham.
“There was absolutely no assault of any kind,” wrote Donham.
The Saxton family affidavit does not say from whom they heard the accusations. The allegation of sexual assault was never proven in court.
Kaitlin Saxton had her parents sign non-disclosure agreements preventing them from repeating anything they had heard from her about the alleged incident with Baillie.
“We were reluctant to sign these non-disclosure agreements but Kait told us it was necessary to conclude the matters,” reads the affidavit by Michael and Kathryn Saxton.
“We do not know who required us to sign these agreements but we do not believe it was at Kait’s request.”
After their daughter’s death two years ago, they found a non-disclosure agreement in her personal effects.
It reads:
- “Certain events have caused Kaitlin Saxton to terminate her employment with the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Caucus on a mutually agreed basis
- Kaitlin Saxton has committed herself to ensure that the events leading to her termination of that employment be kept strictly confidential
- There are very serious adverse consequences to Kaitlin Saxton if these events are disclosed or discussed in any way, directly or indirectly, whether verbally or in writing; and
- The making or continuation of any disclosure or discussion of the events leading to Kaitlin Saxton terminating her employment is harmful to her, both personally and legally.”
In their affidavit, the Saxtons state their daughter came to regret signing the non-disclosure agreement and gave away the money, which was part of her financial settlement, to her family and friends.
“She felt it was ‘dirty money’ in her words,” reads the affidavit.
“Jamie Baillie would continue to attempt to make contact with Kait, including in the days leading up to former premier Roger Bacon’s funeral in Amherst on 8 October, 2021, when Kait was working for Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin.”
Smith-McCrossin referenced the non-disclosure agreement in the legislature last spring, which she alleges her former assistant had been made to sign by the PC Party, as she introduced legislation to ban their use with victims of sexual assault in Nova Scotia.
Karla MacFarlane responded by introducing a motion to have Smith-McCrossin kicked out of the legislature unless she retracted her allegations and apologized.
The motion was never brought to a vote by the majority government, but it was not removed from the table.
Smith-McCrossin’s lawyer, James Goodwin, said Monday that it was left on the table by the government as a threat.
Smith-McCrossin is seeking to have the Supreme Court rule that the government is acting outside its power. A hearing is set on the application in Amherst on Nov. 25.
“We are showing that the government is acting in bad faith, that they are not seeking her removal for lying, they are threatening her for telling the truth,” Goodwin said.
“They do not want this story to see the light of day, and now it will.”
MacFarlane and Tara Miller, former party president, held a telephone media briefing after the affidavits were made public Monday.
They reiterated their position that Saxton was never made to sign a non-disclosure agreement by either the PC Party or caucus.
Miller read from what she said was legal advice received by the party at the time about the agreement reached with Saxton.
“As you will recall, we did not want her to claim she had been muzzled or any third party to suggest we had imposed a gag order to keep this secret,” reads the correspondence Miller said was from the party’s legal counsel.
“If ever asked, you can say there was not a confidentiality agreement. Similarly, there are no legal restrictions on what the PC caucus or party can say about the settlement. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to broadcast it, as doing so would disclose she was a victim.”
Both MacFarlane and Miller said they had no knowledge of any talks regarding a non-disclosure agreement between Saxton and any other parties.
“From my contemporaneous notes, I spoke regularly with the victim and her family and there was no indication she was having any conversation or communication with the leader at the time,” said Miller.
“It could have happened. If it did, it would have been the leader going out on his own.”
