Premier Ball evades 'yes or no' questions on what he told Eddie Joyce about allegations

One day after Eddie Joyce claimed the premier told him Sherry Gambin-Walsh's complaints against him were "B.S.," Dwight Ball dodged questions about it in the House of Assembly.

Ches Crosbie wanted a simple answer from Ball on Tuesday — did you, or did you not tell Eddie Joyce the allegations of harassment and bullying against him were unfounded?

"Yes or no," he posed to his counterpart across the aisle.

Ball stood to respond and danced around the question, never saying yes, never saying no.

And so, Crosbie asked the question, nearly word-for-word, a second time.

"Yes or no," he finished with again.

This time Ball spoke with more vigor, taking aim at Crosbie but not answering his question.

"Coming out of the process, the leader of the opposition himself said this should not be carried out in a public sphere, and here we go again," Ball responded. "No lessons are learned by the leader of the opposition."

Crosbie rose again for a third time.

"Again, Mr. Speaker, I can only repeat the question, which in my submission was not answered. Did the premier tell the member from Humber-Bay of Islands that the allegations were ill-founded, or words to similar effect? Yes or no."

Again, Ball didn't answer the question. 

"The conversations I would have had with any MHAs were based on the information that they would have had. The allegations that were put forward in this case about MHAs — the conversations that I had about allegations and what the responses would look like, I had never seen those, what the responses would have looked like."

Shouldn't have talked to Joyce, Crosbie says

When asked directly by CBC News on Monday evening, twice, Ball said he didn't recall making the comments and didn't think it sounded like the type of language he would use.

He did, however, say he had many conversations with Eddie Joyce in the days and weeks following the allegations of harassment and bullying levelled against him by Gambin-Walsh, the minister of Service N.L.

Ball repeated that answer Tuesday during Question Period.

"I've never denied having those conversations," he said. "It was a proper thing for me to."

Ball said he stayed in close contact with everyone involved in the complaints, to try to keep tabs on how the process was unfolding.

In a scrum with media after Question Period, Crosbie said Ball shouldn't have spoken to Joyce.

"He shouldn't have been inserting himself into that process," he said. "To do that is to destroy public confidence in the integrity of the process."

Despite Joyce's 10-minute tirade in the House on Monday evening, directed at Ball's empty chair, the premier said Joyce is welcome back to the Liberal Party if he is willing to engage in a "restorative justice" process.

When reporters asked Crosbie if he would be interested in Joyce's loyalty, he pulled no punches, but also didn't say no.

"Mr. Joyce has issues, let's just leave it that way. And he's still working on them. If he gets them all worked out, we'll have a look and see," Crosbie said before laughing. "But that hasn't happened yet."