Crown stays criminal charges against Gerry Lougheed in Ontario byelection scandal
Charges not dropped, Crown has 12 months to bring them back
The federal crown has stayed its criminal charges against Gerry Lougheed, and has asked the court to delay proceedings.
At the Sudbury courthouse this morning, Lougheed's lawyer Michael Lacy acknowledged that "unfortunately" the Crown does have the right to stay proceedings with no explanation.
Lougheed had been charged with one count of counselling an offence not committed and one count of unlawfully influencing or negotiating appointments.
Police had alleged Lougheed offered a would-be Liberal candidate for a byelection last year a job or appointment to step aside for Premier Kathleen Wynne's preferred candidate.
But today the Crown stayed those charges, though the Crown can choose to reactivate them within a year — but in practice, that rarely happens.
Lacy said Lougheed, who has always maintained his innocence, is relieved.
"Today is a good day for him, but at the same time, it's with the caveat that they're stayed for now," Lacy said.
"[The Crown is] not prosecuting the case for now. So, that's still going to be hanging over his head over the next year, until the crown confirms, should they choose to ... confirm they're not going to proceed with any criminal prosecution.
"He's going to try to move on with his life, albeit he has this hanging over his head in the sense that the crown could re-initiate proceedings."
The charges stem from a conversation Lougheed had with former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier, where they discuss Olivier taking on another role with the Liberal Party or the Ontario government, to make way for Glenn Thibeault, then Sudbury's NDP MP, to be the candidate in the 2015 byelection.
You can listen to a recording of that conversation here.
"I think any objective review of that recording made it clear he was simply trying to assist someone in trying to understand a process," Lacy said.
"We all know at the end of the day Mr. Olivier was not going to get the opportunity to run in the byelection because the premier had the ultimate right to decide who was going to be the candidate. To be maligned through the allegations and, in part, through the media coverage, obviously has its toll on anyone, no matter how much resolve you have."
Premier Kathleen Wynne, speaking at an unrelated event in Brantford, Ont., said she thinks it is a good outcome and she is pleased.
However, the Ontario Provincial Police are still investigating Lougheed and Wynne's deputy chief of staff's byelection conduct under the Election Act, after Elections Ontario found an "apparent contravention" of a section of the act concerning bribery.
Federal prosecutor Vern Brewer told a Sudbury court this month that a "parallel investigation" into possible Elections Act charges against Lougheed and the Liberal party "[would] have a direct impact" on the criminal proceedings.
No one from the federal prosecutor's office would comment, but did confirm that a report outlining that Elections Act investigation is now being reviewed by the federal prosecutor's office.
Lacy said he believes it shows that the criminal charges against his client were rushed.
"It seems pretty clear ... in light of the stay of proceedings today, that the decision to proceed with criminal charges was done prematurely. I'm not going to say that it's keystone cops or a function of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, but you can draw your own conclusions," he said.
with files from The Canadian Press