Mar 16, 2009 08:47 PM
The Crown will not appeal the acquittal of former privacy commissioner George Radwanski, who was found not guilty of fraud and breach of trust charges last month.
Sheamus Murphy, a spokesman for the Ontario Attorney General's Department, says the decision was made "after a careful and thorough review of the matter."
Radwanski left the post in 2003 after parliamentary hearings into his spending habits generated controversy. He rang up more than $24,000 in hospitality expenses during his less than three years in the privacy job.
Radwanski and his former chief of staff, Art Lamarche, were charged in March 2006.
In a ruling issued Feb. 13, Justice Paul Belanger of the Ontario Court of Justice said the prosecution failed to show Radwanski's behaviour was outside the Ottawa norm. But he added it may have been "at the extreme high end of the discretionary range."
Radwanksi said after the ruling it was "great" to have his ``good name restored."
Lamarche was convicted of breach of trust for authorizing an improper $16,000 vacation pay-out to Radwanski, but Belanger ruled no fraud was involved.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
Radwanski is not the name that everyone should remember, the name that really counts in this case is Mike Crystal, the criminal defense lawyer who did such bang up job in his defense. Anyone who knows anything about this case would probably have predicted that the evidence was not beyond reasonable doubt, that is a long long way apart from "the balance of probabilities". Obviously Radwanski's can claim that this ruling was "great" and also "claim" that "his good name restored". That ruling if quoted verbatim in a resume is unlikely to get him the same job ever again. There is also that very troubling criminal conviction of his former chief of staff. I predict that we have not heard the rest of the story.