Top Liberals Pat Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed have been found not guilty of all bribery charges in a Sudbury courtroom.
The trial centred on the claims by Andrew Olivier that he had been ousted by the Liberals so that Glenn Thibeault could run in his place. Olivier says that incentives were given to Thibeault to encourage him to change parties and run for the Liberals where Olivier had recently lost a close election. The two had been accused of offering Olivier employment as an incentive to step aside before the 2015 Sudbury by-election that Thibeault later won.
The trial also saw Premier Kathleen Wynne appear as a witness. Sorbara had once been Wynne’s deputy chief of staff and campaign director, and Lougheed, a Liberal fundraiser.
Judge Howard Borenstein, in his courtroom address, says that it was never clear that Olivier was a viable candidate for the Liberals, and that he could not find Sorbara and Lougheed guilty of bribery when it came to something [Olivier’s viability as a candidate] that could never happen.
Borenstein granted an application that called for the dismissal of all charges before any witnesses from the defence had been called.
