The Trial of Larry O'Brien

It started May 4 with applications to allow cameras and computers in the courtroom. Three months later, the trial of Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien will end with a decision on whether he is guilty or not of the two charges against him.

When Judge Douglas Cunningham announces his ruling Wednesday morning, it will bring an end to a drawn-out affair — and possibly the mayor's political career. If he's found guilty of either of the two influence-peddling charges, O'Brien will be forced to step down as mayor.

How did things get to this juncture? What follows is a look at the highlights of O'Brien's trial.

May 4: Throngs of reporters gather outside the Ottawa courthouse for the trial's first day. The mayor arrives with his wife, Colleen, a few minutes before 10 and makes his way to Courtroom 36 — the trial's home for the next three months.

Day 1 is taken up with two applications to add technology to the proceedings. The CBC asks to put cameras in the courtroom. That application is denied. Judge Cunningham calls the application "woefully late" and says it would delay the start of the trial by weeks, if not months. A second application from the Ottawa Citizen to allow texting devices in the courtroom is more successful. Cunningham allows them, making it one of the first trials in Canada to offer play-by-play commentary of what's going on in the courtroom. CBC reporter Alistair Steele becomes the network's very own Bob Cole.

May 11: The trial begins in earnest. Crown prosecutor Scott Hutchison's first witness is Terry Kilrea, the former mayoral candidate whose accusations against O'Brien led to the criminal charges. Kilrea takes the stand just after 10:30 a.m. A little more than 3½ later, Hutchison is done with the witness and defence lawyer Michael Edelson begins his cross-examination. It takes a lot longer to complete.

May 13: On the third day of Kilrea's cross-examination, Cunningham tells Edelson, "Perhaps we've spent enough time on peripheral issues. Perhaps it's time we got at the crux of the case."

May 14: After four days of challenging Kilrea's credibility and character, Edelson ends the week with what appears to be a real zinger. Pressed by Edelson about his meeting with federal cabinet Minister John Baird on July 19, 2006, Kilrea insists the idea of an appointment to the National Parole Board never came up during the hour-long session. But Edelson tells the court that Baird's statements to police say the appointment did come up during the meeting, at which Baird told Kilrea he wasn't qualified for the job. "If you're wrong about the July 19th meeting, then we have to question whether you are right about any of this." But later that evening, Baird's office issues a statement backing Kilrea's interpretation of the events. "The issue was never discussed during the meeting between Mr. Baird and Mr. Kilrea," the release reads in part. Cunningham later rules that Edelson's questions were in good faith based on transcripts of what Baird said to police in two separate interviews.

May 21: Edelson still isn't finished with Kilrea, but Baird's schedule means he takes the stand this morning. There is tremendous media interest in what he has to say, but when he's done just over two hours later, there's a sense of anti-climax. As CBC legal analyst Stéphane Émard-Chabot says, Baird corroborated Kilrea's story, but didn't add any new evidence to trouble O'Brien.

Later that afternoon, after seven days of cross-examination, Edelson finishes his questioning of Kilrea.

May 25: Week 4 of the trial begins with video of an April 2007 interview of O'Brien led by OPP investigator Brian Mason. Mason then takes the stand, followed later that day by Ottawa police Deputy Chief Sue O'Sullivan.

May 26: The issue of hearsay evidence arises. Cunningham has to decide whether to allow the testimony of three witnesses: John Light, Thom Bennett and Greg Strong. In early August 2006, Light was approached to become O'Brien's campaign manager but felt he had made a commitment to Kilrea. The Crown argues that Bennett and Strong would have told him that an appointment was in the works for Kilrea. None of this potential testimony would tie the appointment offer to O'Brien directly, but it would, the Crown argues, confirm Kilrea's version of events, namely that the offer of an appointment was still live when Kilrea and O'Brien met in a Tim Horton's parking lot. It would also contradict O'Brien's answers in his interview with the OPP. O'Brien stated that he had indicated to Kilrea, on July 12, that he could do nothing to help him with his nomination. Cunningham eventually decides to hear the testimony in a voir dire — a kind of mini-trial. In the end, the testimony of the three witnesses is allowed.

May 27: Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod offers up what is likely the most damaging corroborating testimony to Terry Kilrea's claims that will be heard during the trial. She tells the court she met Larry O'Brien in her constituency office on July 31, 2006. She says O'Brien told her: "We're talking to Terry about an appointment." Asked "an appointment to what?," MacLeod replies: "I believe it was to the National Parole Board."

June 2: The Crown rests its case after two more witnesses. The defence rises to ask for a directed verdict, not on lack of evidence, but for another reason. Defence lawyer David Paciocco makes the argument: the defence raises two objections to the Crown 's interpretation of the Criminal Code sections under which O'Brien is charged (Sections 121 and 125). The first objection is that any "benefit" O'Brien is alleged to have received must include a financial component — in other words, that O'Brien would have had to demand money from Kilrea in exchange for an appointment. The second defence argument is that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the promise in the first place. Paciocco says criminalizing those sorts of deals would make politicians, from the prime minister on down, guilty of a criminal act.

June 8: Arguments for and against the motion for a directed verdict begin. They end the next day. A decision is set for June 26.

June 26: A confident O'Brien enters the courtroom filled with friends and supporters. His media handler throughout the trial, Barry McLoughlin, offers up interviews with the mayor for after a decision in the mayor's favour is made. Rumour has it that the mayor is expected to walk over to his office at city hall and start running the city again once the decision is in. The media are not able to confirm that, but it doesn't matter in the end. Judge Cunningham won't play ball. He rules against the defence motion for a directed verdict. "The Crown submits that just because this activity is one of politics' dirty realities does not make it any less odious, indeed criminal. I agree with this submission. In short, just because it happens doesn't necessarily make it acceptable and therefore excluded from the scope of s. 121(1)(d). This section must be interpreted in accordance with its legislative purpose of safeguarding integrity, both actual and apparent." Court adjourns until July 6 to allow the defence to decide its next move.

July 6: The defence decides it will call no witnesses. Closing arguments begin. They end the next day. Cunningham says he will render a decision on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

July 27: The date for the decision gets moved up a week to Wednesday, Aug 5.

Trial background

The race for the city’s top job was really heating up in the summer of 2006. The mayor, Bob Chiarelli, was fighting for another term. Former city councillor Alex Munter was back, courting the left-of-centre vote. And Terry Kilrea, who had surprised Chiarelli and just about everyone else by taking 36 per cent of the vote in 2003, was running as well. In fact he’d made a point of being first to register.

Terry Kilrea (CBC)

Kilrea’s campaign focused on law and order, and a fierce opposition to the North-South light rail plan, which was then on the verge of council approval. Another right-of-centre hopeful, funeral home owner Brian McGarry, decided not to enter the race because his own polling showed splitting the conservative vote would ensure defeat for both of them, and pave the way for another candidate – likely Alex Munter – to take the election in November. Enter Larry O’Brien.

O’Brien made his name – and his fortune – with Calian Technologies, the company he founded in 1982. He’d never run for office though, and by July rumours were swirling that he was about to make his first foray into politics. Shortly after Canada Day, he asked his niece Heather Tessier, who was working as Kilrea’s events coordinator, for Kilrea’s cell number. He called Kilrea to set up a meeting.

Kilrea told police O’Brien also asked him what he wanted to do, besides be mayor. When Kilrea mentioned a job on the National Parole Board, O’Brien said: “What if I can make that happen?”

According to police documents the meeting took place July 5th. It's since come out in court that the meeting actually took place July 12th. The two men met for about an hour on a restaurant patio at 700 Sussex Dr., where O’Brien lived in a luxury condo. Kilrea would later tell investigators with the OPP’s anti-rackets section that it was during this first encounter that O’Brien offered him up to $30,000 to cover his campaign expenses. Kilrea told police O’Brien also asked him what he wanted to do, besides be mayor. When Kilrea mentioned a job on the National Parole Board, O’Brien said: “What if I can make that happen?” Later that afternoon, Kilrea says O’Brien called him and told him his name was “in the queue” for an appointment.

The next face-to-face encounter between Kilrea and O’Brien happened a month later, in the parking lot behind a Tim Hortons in the city’s west end. This time the meeting lasted just 10 minutes. Kilrea told O’Brien he wasn’t interested in his offer, and wasn’t going to drop out of the race. But within a couple weeks, Kilrea’s campaign started running into problems, and on Aug. 30, he quit and threw his support behind Bob Chiarelli.

Larry O'Brien (CBC)

That November, with a “zero means zero” tax promise and a pledge to “press the reset button” on light rail, Larry O’Brien swept to victory. Rumours of an offer to Kilrea persisted, however, and a few days before Christmas, at the request and expense of the Ottawa Citizen, Kilrea swore an affidavit and took a polygraph test recounting the events of that summer. When O’Brien found out about it, he first went to the police to demand an investigation, but then decided to withdraw his complaint to gauge public reaction. The Citizen published the allegations on Feb. 10, 2007. About a week later, Ottawa and District Labour Council president Sean McKenny got his hands on a copy of Kilrea’s affidavit, and handed it over to Ottawa police Chief Vince Bevan. Bevan forwarded it on to the OPP, and in March, investigators with the anti-rackets squad launched their investigation.

Detectives interviewed dozens of witnesses, including O’Brien and Kilrea. They seized documents from the Citizen, computer records from Calian and from Kilrea’s webmaster, phone records from Bell, and later, following a tip from an anonymous source, receipts and reservation records from Hy’s Steakhouse on Queen Street, a favourite gathering place for some of Ottawa’s political heavyweights. The court documents filed to obtain those warrants, along with the original Kilrea affidavit, painted a fascinating picture, and named names from the highest echelons of power.

From the federal Conservative party:

• John Baird, who was Treasury Board president in the summer of 2006
• John Reynolds, the Conservatives’ election campaign co-chair and a close friend of Larry O’Brien’s
• Doug Finley, the party’s campaign director
• Tom Bennett, a Conservative party fundraiser
• Dmitri Pantazopoulos, a pollster with close ties to the Conservatives

From the provincial Conservatives:

• Lisa MacLeod, MPP for Nepean-Carleton
• Joe Varner, MacLeod’s husband and one-time candidate for office

Others interviewed or named in the investigation:

• Greg Strong, former Calian vice-president and a Conservative insider
• John Light, an assistant to Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre
• Tim Tierney, Terry Kilrea’s webmaster

On Dec. 10, 2007, following a nine-month investigation, police charged Larry O’Brien with two offences under the Criminal Code. Both charges deal with O’Brien’s alleged offer to help arrange a federal appointment for Kilrea, not with any offer of money. Addressing city council later that morning, O’Brien said he was “personally very embarrassed,” but denied the allegations, as he has all along. The next day, he announced his intention to stay on as mayor despite the charges against him.

And so the stage is set for one of the most anticipated criminal trials in Ottawa’s history. Witnesses from every level of government will testify. Two of the most accomplished lawyers in the country will go head-to-head. At the end of it all, the mayor of Ottawa will either clear his name, or be forced to resign. CBC News will be there every step of the way on TV, radio, and right here on www.cbc.ca/ottawa

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