Terry Kilrea was expected to give greater detail about the meetings he said he had with Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien during his testimony at the trial Thursday. (Francois Leclerc/CBC)

Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien's defence lawyer continued on Thursday to ask Terry Kilrea why he went to the media with his allegations of influence peddling.

Testifying for a fourth day in O'Brien's criminal trial in an Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Kilrea denied he knew his common-law wife had leaked copies of his sworn affidavit.

"You were the gardener here," lawyer Michael Edelson told Kilrea during his cross-examination. "You planted the story; you cultivated it."

The first witness to testify in the trial, Kilrea alleges that while running against O'Brien in the 2006 mayoral election, he was presented with an offer to have his campaign expenses paid and to have help getting an appointment with the National Parole Board if he were to drop out of the race.

The allegations are contained in an affidavit sworn at the request and expense of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper and led to a police investigation that resulted in influence-peddling charges being laid against O'Brien.

Edelson asked Kilrea how Sean McKenny, president of the Ottawa and District Labour Council, had received Kilrea's affidavit and then passed it on to police.

McKenny had told police investigators that Kilrea's common-law wife, Dina Koukis, had given him a copy.

Kilrea denied having knowledge of what she might have done with the affidavit. "I stayed out if it," Kilrea told the court. "That was her business."

Edelson, however, said that Kilrea's lack of knowledge had been deliberate.

"You were part of an arrangement — hiding behind your wife yet again — so you could have deniability," said Edelson. "You lit the match."

The questions continue along a line Edelson began on Wednesday, when he suggested that Kilrea had leaked confidential email conversations he had with O'Brien and John Baird, a federal minister and MP for the riding of Ottawa West-Nepean, to the media.

Kilrea denied the accusation.

Edelson spent much of Wednesday's cross-examination attacking Kilrea's credibility, questioning his memory of dates, pointing out that Kilrea had sworn in the affidavit that his first meeting with O'Brien was on July 5, 2006, and had later said that meeting had occurred on July 12.

The questions were expected to move on to having Kilrea describe the meetings he said he had with O'Brien, meetings Justice Douglas Cunningham had referred to as the "crux" of the matter.

Baird brought into trial

Edleson also said Transport Minister John Baird will flatly contradict the testimony of O'Brien's chief accuser.

But an official from Baird's office told the Canadian Press that Edelson has completely misrepresented a police statement provided by the minister and that no contradiction with Kilrea's testimony exists.

Baird's office said the defence lawyer has taken a statement Baird made to police and characterized it as a conversation between Baird and Kilrea.

Edelson appeared to confuse Kilrea on the witness stand with a dramatically different account of a July 2006 meeting between Kilrea and Baird, then-Treasury Board president.

Edelson told the court that Baird's police statement says he told Kilrea that he'd just brought in the Federal Accountability Act and that under the new rules, Kilrea was unqualified for an appointment to the National Parole Board.

Baird's office, however, said the minister's statement to police doesn't allude to any conversation with Kilrea but rather is a statement of principles about the Accountability Act and Kilrea's unsuitability for an appointment.

With files from The Canadian Press