Judge denies bid to quash charges

Some evidence exists that could ultimately lead to the conviction of two former senior political aides accused of illegally destroying documents related to an Ontario government decision to cancel two gas plants in 2011, a judge ruled Thursday.

In rejecting defence arguments that the prosecution had no case against David Livingston and his deputy Laura Miller, Ontario court Judge Timothy Lipson said the trial should proceed. At issue in the interim ruling, the judge said, was not whether the Crown’s case was weak but whether it had any case at all.

Lipson stressed his task was to determine only whether evidence existed to support the prosecution’s case, and that any finding of guilt would ultimately depend on the Crown’s proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Livingston, chief of staff to former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty, and his deputy Miller, had pleaded not guilty to deliberately and illegally destroying documents in 2012 and 2013 related to the government’s contentious decision to cancel and relocate two natural gasfuelled generating plants before the 2011 election at a cost of more than $1 billion to taxpayers.

Lipson noted the decision “dominated political discussion” at the legislature in 2012 and 2013 and that the opposition and others were hunting for information.