A judge is expected to decide this morning whether to allow the Sudbury bribery trial to continue.
On Oct. 10, defence lawyers for Liberal fundraiser Gerry Lougheed Jr. and former Liberal campaign director Patricia Sorbara moved to have Justice Howard Borenstein dismiss the case.
Michael Lacy and Brian Greenspan argued that the Crown hadn't made its case in a trial that has garnered attention from across the province.
Lougheed and Sorbara are accused of attempting to bribe Andrew Olivier not to run as a candidate in the February 2015 byelection and instead support Glenn Thibeault, who left the federal NDP to run for the provincial Liberals in Sudbury.
Sorbara is also accused of offering Thibeault financial incentives to run for the party – paid campaign jobs for two of his staff.
Lacy argued that the Crown's case largely relies on the idea Olivier was a candidate as defined under the Elections Act and the Elections Financing Act. Under the Elections Act, a person can declare themselves a candidate if they are running as an independent. While Olivier did eventually run as an independent, that announcement came after Thibeault was appointed the Liberal candidate.
Lacy said Olivier announced he was running for the Liberals on Facebook in November 2014, but that didn't make him a Liberal candidate.
Lacy also accused the Crown of trying to extend the Elections Act to cover how private parties determine their candidates, something Lacy said the Act was not intended to do.
Political parties are “not government actors,” he said, they are private organizations.
In his arguments, Greenspan said it's clear there was a commitment from the Liberals to Thibeault for a professionally run, fund campaign. But he said Thibeault's questions about whether the Liberals pay campaign staff was part of a learning process about how the NDP and Liberals do things.
While he was told that it has been done before and was “doable,” Greenspan said that was in the context of a Q&A about Liberal policies, rather than a demand that his two staffers – Brian Band and Darrell Marsh – receive money. In his remarks, Crown Rick Visca said Borenstein should take an expansive view of what a candidate is – someone who declares in a public way their plans to run for office, as Olivier did. And by agreeing to pay two Thibeault staffers, that constituted a bribe.
The judge asked Visca what's wrong with someone wanting to bring people he trusts with him on a campaign, and why that should be considered a corrupt practice.
Visca replied that handing out jobs is “the currency of politics.”
Politicians in government have power over these decisions and can use them as financial incentives to secure someone's candidacy, Visca said.
Borenstein said he would deliver his decision on the motion to dismiss the case today at 2:15 p.m.
