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Update: Lougheed bid to return to police board defeated

Fran Caldarelli returns to Police Services Board
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Gerry Lougheed Jr. speaks to the media after his acquital in the Sudbury byelection scanadal in October 2017. (File)

Updated: Feb. 5 at 4:42 p.m.

Gerry Lougheed Jr.'s bid to return to the police services board was defeated on Tuesday afternoon at a nominating committee meeting.

Former vice-chair of the police services board and former city councillor Fran Caldarelli was appointed to the police services board.

Full story will be available on Sudbury.com later this evening.

 

Original story:

The flurry of board and panel appointments city council does at this time of year is normally a low-key process, but at least one decision is already making headlines.

Gerry Lougheed Jr., who was charged and tried — and cleared — in the 2014 Sudbury byelection scandal, is making a bid to return to the police services board.

Lougheed resigned as chair of the board in 2015 when he was charged following an investigation by the OPP's Anti-Rackets Branch that began in January 2015. That's when former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier released recordings of a conversation with Lougheed in which Olivier's future as a candidate was discussed.

After long delays, the case came to trial in 2017 and the pair were found not guilty on Oct. 24.

"The judge today said there was no evidence, at all, to support this case, not even requiring us to answer to it," Lougheed lawyer Michael Lacey said at the time. "The impact of the directed verdict ... is there was no evidence upon which Gerry, or Pat Sorbara, could be convicted.”

The strength of the acquittal is key to him, Lougheed said Tuesday.

“I think the directed verdict gave me the redemption, if that's the word you want to use,” he said. “I think also when (Justice Howard Borenstein, the judge in the case) said that they should have never come to court and should never have been charges the first place.”

Lougheed had a long association with the police board before he resigned, and said he hopes he gets the chance to continue that work.

“I feel there's still lots we need to do locally and provincially with regard to better policing,” Lougheed said.

“I think our police force is one of the best qualities and human resources we have as a community. We have, I think, one of the most progressive police services in Ontario, or in Canada.”

He was chair of the hiring panel that brought in current Chief Paul Pedersen, and Lougheed said he hopes councillors give him another opportunity to serve.

“The police services board's responsibility is to make sure that policing is adequate and effective according to the Police Services Act, and to be a participant in that I think is a great honour and something that I am very passionate about,” he said.

“If (city council) sees fit that I should serve in that capacity again, as I told you, I think it would be an honour and something that I very much appreciate doing. If they decide someone else is better qualified, then I wish that person the best of luck.”

The nominating committee meeting begins today at 3:30 p.m. 


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