Embattled senator Patrick Brazeau pleads guilty to assault, cocaine charges | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Embattled senator Patrick Brazeau pleads guilty to assault, cocaine charges

Senator Patrick Brazeau, a former member of the Conservative caucus, leaves the courthouse in Gatineau after entering a guilty plea for charges on assault and possession of cocaine from incidents in 2013 and 2014 respectively, on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

GATINEAU, Que. - Sen. Patrick Brazeau has pleaded guilty to reduced charges of assault and possession of cocaine.

The former member of Stephen Harper's Conservative caucus entered the guilty pleas today at a courthouse in this west Quebec city, just across the river from Parliament Hill.

His defence lawyer and the Crown prosecutor both asked Quebec Court Judge Valmont Beaulieu to give Brazeau an unconditional discharge.

Beaulieu will rule on Brazeau's sentence in October.

The embattled senator had previously been charged with assault and sexual assault arising from an alleged incident in 2013, but the sexual assault charge was dropped, as were lesser charges stemming from a separate incident in 2014.

Brazeau's legal woes are not over as he is scheduled to stand trial for allegedly being behind the wheel of a vehicle while impaired.

The senator is also scheduled to stand trial in March on charges of breach of trust and fraud in connection to his Senate expenses.

Brazeau, the former head of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, was named to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in December 2008.

He was kicked out of the Tory caucus after he was charged and was suspended from the upper chamber in November 2013. That suspension without pay ended when Parliament was dissolved for the Oct. 19 election.

Before his legal troubles began, the burly senator was likely best known for losing a celebrity boxing match against Justin Trudeau in March 2012.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015
The Canadian Press

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