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OTTAWA — Delays related to disclosure are already stalling the prosecution of Matthew Matchett, a public servant who was charged following the same leak investigation that captured Vice Admiral Mark Norman.

Both Matchett and Norman were accused of leaking cabinet information about a $700-million navy supply ship project with Davie Shipbuilding. The Norman case collapsed in May after federal prosecutors concluded they no longer had a reasonable prospect of conviction.

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The Norman case had been scheduled to go to trial this August, but it was dominated by pre-trial fights over disclosure. Now Matchett’s defence team is picking through much of the same material.

In a court appearance Friday morning, Matchett’s lawyer Matthew Day asked the judge for later dates for the preliminary inquiry, which had been scheduled for Oct. 23 to 25. The judge settled on moving it to Nov. 27 to 29.

Day has previously accused the Crown of waiting overly long to charge Matchett and then dumping disclosure on him

Delaying the inquiry — the court had initially considered dates as far away as March 2020 — raises the prospect of unreasonable trial delays, as Day has previously accused the Crown of waiting overly long to charge Matchett and then dumping disclosure on him.