electionCharges have been laid on a Sudbury Liberal involved in the byelection scandal.

According to an OPP News Release, they charged 61-year old Gerry Lougheed with “one count of Counselling an Offence Not Committed [Section 464 (a) of the Criminal Code] and one count of Unlawfully Influencing or Negotiating Appointments [Section 125 (b) of the Criminal Code].”

Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson wasn’t surprised there was charges coming, but did wonder why it took this long for it to happen.

“We heard a couple weeks ago that the OPP were having a problem for a court and a Justice of the Peace to sign the charges,” he said, concerned that the Liberals were possibly interfering with the judicial process.  But with the charges eventually laid, “it was a good thing.”

He says the important thing at this point is to restore the trust the voting public has in the electoral process, and politicians in general.

Bisson adds it’s clear Laugheed and Sorbara didn’t act on their own, as indicated on the tapes released by Olivier that started everything.

Olivier told reporters in January that he was offered a “job or assignment” with the Liberal Party of Ontario, in place of his spot as the Liberal candidate in the February byelection.

Glenn Thibeault eventually gave up his seat as an NDP MP in Ottawa to run, and won the riding in Sudbury.

Lougheed is expected to appear in Sudbury court on November 18, 2015, and says he will be “vigorously defending” the charges laid against him.

Sorbara was not charged.