The Crown has dropped its case against a federal bureaucrat who was accused of leaking secret cabinet documents on a $ 700 million shipbuilding contract.
Matthew Matchett came out of an Ottawa court as a free man after Judge Hugh McLean informed the jury that he was hearing the case of breach of trust on the Crown’s decision.
The surprise development occurred on the fourth day of what was expected to be a four-week trial.
Matchett was indicted in 2019 on charges of leaking documents related to a shipbuilding agreement between the Quebec Chantier Davie shipyard and the federal government.
The leak was supposed to have taken place in 2015, when the newly elected Liberal government decided to suspend the termination of a contract with Davie to rent a temporary supply boat for the Navy.
The Crown case collapsed after his main witness, Brian Mersereau, testified that he did not remember whether Matchett had provided him with a secret note to the cabinet.
Crown prosecutor Mark Covan’s decision to suspend today’s indictment comes more than three years after the Crown case against Vice Admiral Mark Norman was also dropped.