The lawyer for former Calgary city councillor Joe Magliocca is claiming the timing of the RCMP’s investigation into his client was politically motivated.
In pre-trial motions Monday, Greg Dunn said emails show the RCMP accelerated its investigation in order to lay charges before Calgarians went to the polls in the last municipal election.
Magliocca was charged with fraud and breach of trust. Those charges were announced on Oct. 8, 2021, 10 days before the election.
Dunn said officers had been investigating Magliocca’s expense scandal for more than a year. He said emails indicated the RCMP wanted to get the charges registered before the election, including a request to the court clerks to give the matter “priority.”
He claimed the timing of the charges impacted the Ward 2 election results.
Dunn is seeking a judge’s order to get access to more emails exchanged between the RCMP and the Crown.
The Crown is citing solicitor-client privilege in its refusal to hand over the emails.
Many of those emails were administrative in nature and internal to the RCMP, including giving members a heads-up that media attention was likely to follow the charges, the court heard from the Crown.
Pre-trial motions continue on Tuesday, with Magliocca’s trial scheduled to begin in January 2023.
Magliocca’s charges follow an investigation into the former councillor’s trip expenses between 2017 and 2020.