Article content

After nine years of investigation and litigation, the bureau couldn’t make its case that Barney Shum had indirectly enabled bid-rigging at Library and Archives Canada. It’s the Competition Bureau’s second major trial loss in three years. Still to come: two more proceedings on the same set of facts.

—-

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Judge acquits former Library and Archives manager in alleged bid-rigging scheme Back to video

When Barney Shum showed up to hear his verdict at the Elgin Street courthouse on June 11, he had been living under a very dark shadow for nearly a decade.

Despite prescriptions for an ulcer and anxiety, the former mid-level manager at Library and Archives Canada had been unable to sleep for days, so worried was he about this moment in court.

Shum, 61, had been hired by the Library in the late 1970s straight out of university and had worked there until 2012. He was now facing two years in jail. The allegation was that he had created conditions that allowed two of the library’s information technology contractors, Microtime and ADRM, to defraud taxpayers through a 2009 bid-rigging scheme.