All charges against former Calgary MP Rob Anders were dropped on the first day of a two-week tax evasion trial.
Prosecutor Tyler Lord appeared in Calgary County Court on Monday and told Judge Heather Lamure that the Crown had dropped all charges.
“Last week, new information came to my attention, which led me to believe that I no longer had a reasonable chance of being convicted,” Lord said in a statement to CBC News.
Outside the courtroom, Anders’ lawyer Paul Brunen told reporters that his client was “very relieved.”
When the Crown remains charged, prosecutors have a year to reopen the case, but this rarely happens.
Until Monday, Anders faced five charges under the Income Tax Act for alleged activity between 2012 and 2018, including three charges of making false or fraudulent statements, receiving a refund of an amount he is not entitled to, and evading payment. of taxes.
Anders was accused of not reporting more than $ 750,000 in income over a six-year period, including alleged crimes that overlap with his time in government.
The sentences come with maximum sentences of two years in prison and fines of between 50 and 200 percent of the evaded taxes.
Police and court documents allege fake rental costs, mysterious deposits, as well as $ 750,000 in undeclared income and capital gains hidden by the CRA from Anders.
Contradictions have passed
The 50-year-old man who helped found the Conservative Party of Canada held his seat in Calgary from 1997 to 2015, first for the Reform Party and then for the CCP.
In 2014, when Anders lost the battle for Ron Lippert’s nomination in the Calgary Ride in Signal Hill, ending his 18-year term as an MP, he said his only regret was that his government had not cut taxes further.
Anders backed initiatives by the Harper government to offer a variety of tax breaks to Canadians. He was also an outspoken supporter of the abolition of the GST.
Ahead of the battle for nominations in 2014, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Anders had voted for more than 160 tax breaks since his election.
Anders seems to have followed controversy when he was an MP. The staunch opponent of abortion has twice fallen asleep at work, called Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” and received a shoe from the Veterans Affairs Commission after conflicting comments about the NDP.
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