Instead of facing trial for impaired driving and cocaine possession, a former MP and husband of a federal cabinet minister has made a $500 donation to Cystic Fibrosis and paid a $500 fine for careless driving.

According to an agreed statement of facts read into Ontario Court at Orangeville Tuesday, Rahim Jaffer, 38, failed a roadside breathalyser test after a Caledon OPP officer observed him driving through the 50-km/h speed zone in Palgrave at an estimated 93 km/h just before 1 a.m. last Sept. 10.

He was consequently arrested for impaired driving and cocaine possession charges, and admitted to having consumed two beers approximately two hours before his arrest.

On Tuesday, however, Crown attorney Marie Balogh disclosed that those charges had been withdrawn and asked Ontario Court Justice Douglas Maund to accept a plea to careless driving under Section 130 of the Highway Traffic Act.

Defence lawyer Howard Calvin Rubel agreed with the stated facts, and pled his client guilty. In withdrawing the criminal charges, Ms. Balogh said the “matter was carefully reviewed” by the Crown and there were “many legal complications,” on the basis of which there was little chance of a conviction.

Mr. Jaffer, whom Mr. Rubel described as a person with no driving record and employed in the “green energy” business, made no statement to the Court upon being sentenced. There was no mention of the mandatory 90- day suspension that would have been imposed for the failed breathalyser test back in September.

At the time of his arrest, according to Ms. Balogh, Mr. Jaffer had been driving a vehicle with Ontario an Ontario licence plate. It was believed at the time that he was living at the home of his wife, Helena Guergis, Minister of State for the Status of Women, who was recently reported as “throwing a tantrum” at a Maritime airport.

On Tuesday, Mr. Rubel filed an “updated address” for Mr. Jaffer, on 70 Avenue in Edmonton.

Mr. Jaffer became the first Muslim elected to the Canadian Parliament, for the Reform Party in 1997 at the age of 25. He later held the seat as a Conservative until his defeat by the NDP in November 2008.