OTTAWA — The prospect of more than one leak about secret cabinet deliberations in late 2015 around a $700-million shipbuilding deal was raised on Wednesday, as a longtime lobbyist testified he did not know the origins of certain information about the meeting.
Brian Mersereau told a court that federal public servant Matthew Matchett did not provide details about the ad hoc cabinet committee meeting on Nov. 19, 2015. The details were referenced the following day in a CBC article.
The chairman of lobbying firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies also testified that he did not know the origins of information about the meeting referenced in emails sent by senior officials from Quebec shipyard Chantier Davie around the same time.
“You have to remember Davie was dealing directly with senior bureaucrats running the program, hourly or daily or whatever you want to call it,” Mersereau said under questioning by defence lawyer Michael Johnston.
“They were trying to hammer out the deal. So under normal circumstances, there would have been all kinds of conversations going on. And one would expect those conversations to go on.”
The testimony came on the third day of Matchett’s breach of trust trial, in which the employee at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is accused of having illegally leaked cabinet secrets about the deal.
Matchett has pleaded not guilty and his trial, which started on Monday, is expected to run four weeks.
The leak is alleged to have occurred in November 2015, when the newly elected Liberal government decided to hold off finalizing a contract with Davie to lease a temporary supply ship for the navy, the MV Asterix.
The Liberals later approved the deal, which has seen the government lease the Asterix from Davie since January 2018 while the Royal Canadian Navy waits for two permanent new support vessels to be built by Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver.
Mersereau previously testified that he received an envelope containing a draft letter to cabinet and a PowerPoint presentation about the Asterix marked: “Confidence of the Queen’s Privy Council.”
Emails between Mersereau and Matchett filed in court as evidence also include one sent from Matchett’s email address to the lobbyist saying: “I’ve got everything, the motherlode.”
Yet while Mersereau testified he later met with CBC journalist James Cudmore to discuss a story about “another shipbuilding saga,” he said details in the resulting article about the Liberals’ closed-door talks did not come from him.
Those include the actual decision to delay the deal with Davie pending a review, and specific concerns raised with ministers during the meeting about the navy’s desperate need for a supply ship after its previous two were retired.
“Mr. Cudmore’s article seems to be citing sources that aren’t you or information that you had,” Johnston said.
“Well, there’s certainly information in there that he did not get from me,” Mersereau replied.
Mersereau also said he did not know the source of information about the meeting mentioned in emails sent by Davie officials, including one from senior vice-president John Schmidt revealing the cabinet committee’s decision to pause the deal.
“So is it fair to say that ultimately, the documents that you receive (from Matchett) contained very little relevant information that we didn’t already know?” Johnston asked.
“By and large, yes,” Mersereau said, adding his focus was on whether the contract negotiated and finalized by the Harper government in the weeks before the 2015 federal election was going to be challenged by the newly elected Liberals.
Johnston at one point asked whether Mersereau knew if Davie was receiving information from another person, whom the defence lawyer identified by name, but the lobbyist said the name didn’t mean anything to him.
Johnston noted that Matchett, whom he described as “an Indigenous guy from New Brunswick … (who) cared very deeply about the welfare and the benefit of Atlantic Canada,” was in Moncton when the cabinet committee meeting was actually held.
Matchett’s trial is scheduled to continue Thursday with the Crown expected to call its second witness.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2022.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
