The failed prosecution of vice-admiral Mark Norman loomed large on Thursday as a second federal official accused of leaking cabinet secrets about a $700-million shipbuilding contract walked out of an Ottawa courthouse a free man.
More than three years after RCMP charged him with breach of trust, the Crown announced it was dropping its case against Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency employee Matthew Matchett.
Justice Hugh McLean conveyed the Crown’s decision to the 12-member jury shortly after they sat down for what was supposed to be the fourth day of a four-week trial whose origins could be traced back to a fateful few days in late 2015.
“The Crown has reassessed their position and they are asking for a stay on the basis that they don’t think there’s a real possibility of you finding the accused guilty,” McLean said before Matchett was allowed to leave.
The surprise development echoed the final moments of the Norman case, in which Crown prosecutors concluded that they had no reasonable chance of securing a conviction of the military’s former second-in-command.
Both men had been accused of leaking cabinet secrets about the newly elected Trudeau government’s decision in November 2015 to review a contract with Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie that had been negotiated by the Harper government.
The deal involved Davie leasing a converted civilian ship to the navy as a supply vessel for five years, with an option for an additional five years. The Liberals eventually approved the contract and the MV Asterix was delivered in January 2018.
Unlike in Norman’s case, however—when the Crown cited new evidence presented by the admiral’s defence team for its decision—the prosecution’s case against Matchett fell apart with its first witness.
Longtime lobbyist Brian Mersereau had testified that he received a package of documents after speaking with Matchett in November 2015 about the Liberals’ plan to review the contract with Davie.
But the chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies repeatedly told the court that he could not remember Matchett providing him with a secret memo to cabinet about the deal.
That failure to conclusively link Matchett to the secret memo proved lethal to the Crown’s case.
Standing with his lawyer outside the courthouse after the decision, a visibly relieved Matchett thanked his defence team as well as family and friends for their support over the years.
“I’m very, very thankful,” Matchett told The Canadian Press. “It’s really hard to understand (after) almost a decade, and I couldn’t be happier, and I’m happy that things are going forward.”
