A Quebec City judge has rejected a request from former deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau to have her fraud case thrown out, because of an "unreasonable" delay in bringing it to trial.
Normandeau cited the famous Jordan Case, where the Supreme Court of Canada rules that cases must be heard within 18 months of charges being brought.
It's been more than two years since Normandeau and her five co-accused were charged in the case, but Judge André Perreault suggested the delay was necessary because of the complexity of the case.
Normandeau, Marc-Yvan Côté and four other were arrested in March 2016 by officers from Quebec's anti-corruption squad, UPAC, as part of an investigation into giving political donations in exchange for public contracts.
Their trial is set to get underway on April 9.