Crown drops breach of trust case against bureaucrat over $700M shipbuilding deal leak
The Crown is dropping its case towards federal bureaucrat Matthew Matchett, accused of leaking secret cupboard paperwork a few $700-million shipbuilding contract.
Matchett walked out of an Ottawa courthouse a free man after Justice Hugh McLean knowledgeable the jury listening to the breach of belief case concerning the Crown’s determination.
The shock improvement got here on the fourth day of what was anticipated to be a four-week trial.
The Crown’s case fell aside after its prime witness, longtime lobbyist Brian Mersereau, testified that he couldn’t bear in mind if Matchett had supplied him with a secret memo to cupboard.
The November 2015 leak in query needed to do with a controversial Liberal plan to freeze a shipbuilding deal negotiated and formalized by the previous Conservative authorities with Quebec’s Chantier Davie.
It sparked an enormous federal hunt to seek out the supply of the leak, which the Crown had beforehand alleged was Vice-Adm. Mark Norman, the previous vice-chief of the defence workers.
A breach of belief cost towards Norman was stayed in 2018, with the Crown citing a scarcity of proof.
Extra coming.
With information from International Information.
