OTTAWA – Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien’s influence peddling trial resumes Monday with his lawyers beginning their bid to have the charges dismissed.
Defence lawyer David Pacciaco is expected to argue that the charges should never have been laid.
He maintains the section of the Criminal Code that the mayor is charged under was never meant to apply to these kinds of alleged political negotiations.
O’Brien is charged with allegedly offering a National Parole Board position to Terry Kilrea in exchange for dropping out of the 2006 municipal election.
The defence plans to outline that the Supreme Court of Canada’s definition of a “benefit” is financial, not political, and the charges don’t apply to the mayor.
Defence lawyers argued last week that the alleged crime is merely the “stock in trade of political disclosure.”
