Crown prosecutors accuse a federal official of trying to undermine the cabinet’s decision -making powers by knowingly releasing sensitive documents related to a $ 700 million shipbuilding project at the Davie shipyard.
Prosecutor Mark Covan filed the lawsuit in his first closing arguments at the trial of civil servant Matthew Matchett, who was accused of breach of trust.
Stephen Harper’s Conservative government contacted Davie in 2015 for the Quebec shipyard to lease a converted civilian container ship to the Navy to serve as a temporary supply vessel.
But the first Crown witness at the trial, veteran lobbyist Brian Mersereau, who worked for Davie at the time, said the Lévis shipyard feared that Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, newly elected in October 2015, will tear this agreement.
This is why the lobbyist contacted civil servant Matchett in November 2015, he testified.
Mr. said. Mersereau in court that a plain brown envelope, containing several documents, was delivered to his office shortly after discussing this file with Mr. Matchett.
When questioned by prosecutor Covan, Mr. Mersereau, however, specified that he could not remember exactly what documents were in the brown envelope, other than a draft letter to the federal cabinet and other documents that were not confidential.
The Canadian Press
Source: Radio-Canada
