Law Times

PAGE 2 NEWS September 29, 2008 • Law timeS Government has no funding for new schools Continued from page 1 any new law schools in the province. Proposals for new schools had come from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Laurentian University in Sudbury, and Lakehead in Thunder Bay. Lakehead's proposal was the furthest along, with the school having conducted an external review if its proposed curricu- lum, the $1 million purchase of a build- ing, and the law society's decision to pass the proposal along to the National Com- mittee on Accreditation (NCA). Lakehead's proposal was largely aimed at addressing the need for more lawyers in the North, and more spe- cialists in Aboriginal law. Lakehead president Fred Gilbert says the Nishnawbe Aski Nation and County and District Law Presidents' Association asked the university to create a school producing graduates to fill the gap. While the government has said no funding will be available for new law schools anytime soon, Gilbert is press- ing on with his campaign to get approv- al for the school, but says the NCA has held off on considering it pending an internal study to determine if the coun- try's law programs must be altered. Gilbert says he recently received a copy of a letter, dated in August, to law society Treasurer Derry Miller from the law deans, proposing a southern Ontario law school presence in the north. "What they've done is clearly dem- onstrate what we've been saying, that there's a need in this area," he says. "But we don't need the largesse of the southern universities to deal with the issue. We're quite capable of dealing with it ourselves and in a way that is more appropriate." Gilbert says he won't view any proposal from the deans as an adequate compromise considering the govern- ment's refusal to provide funding. "They should in fact be encouraging us to proceed, and my disappointment is that they haven't looked at this pro- posal as complementing what's going on in the south," says Gilbert. "It's a continuation of the sense that the south can take care of the needs of the north, which it can't and hasn't in the past. "We feel very strongly that there's a legitimate case here, and we're going to continue to press it." While the law deans are discussing the matter, Holloway says the entire profession in Ontario must work to- gether on finding a solution. "It's important for all of us as stake- holders in the profession to accept own- ership of the issue," he says. "The rule of law is as important in Timmins as it is in Toronto, so it's important to ensure the legal profession continues to flour- ish throughout Ontario." LT Issue of releases in limbo Continued from page 1 Woods of Montreal's Woods LLP, who took the lead role for the dissident group of bondholders who chal- lenged the plan. Indeed, so hopeful were the dissidents that leave would be granted that they served (but didn't file) their factum in the substantive appeal one week before the leave ruling was released. "This was the classic situation for granting leave," Woods says. "Quite apart from anything else, the On- tario Court of Appeal's decision was directly in conflict with the approach the Quebec Court of Appeal had taken some years earlier." According to Woods, the Supreme Court's fail- ure to hear the appeal leaves the issue of the releases in limbo. "We still have conflicting approaches, and sooner or later, the issue has to be resolved," he says. "For the time being, though, it's pretty clear that future plans of arrangement in Ontario — and probably the other common law provinces — may include very broad releases." Other observations have been less charitable to the Supreme Court. "If you ask me, the Supreme Court was intimidat- ed by the scope of the issues and the very short time frame," says one lawyer close to the case. Ben Zarnett of Toronto's Goodmans LLP, counsel interpretation, so that there was no legal point of national importance involved." Zarnett also disagrees that the broad discretion that the Court of Appeal decision allows restructuring judges to exercise will cement the CCAA's reputation as a wild and wooly playing field. "Remember that the proponents of the plan have to get by a vote and then convince a court that the restruc- turing is fair and reasonable," he says. When the dust has settled, however, the SCC's denial of leave will stand in stark contrast to its deci- sion to grant leave in the BCE takeover case — which garnered the institution widespread praise for its expeditious processing of a major commercial case. But for those who look closely, there's an interesting similarity between BCE and ABCP. "In BCE, the transaction could not proceed if for the Purdy Committee, sees it differently. "We submitted that the Quebec case had been wrongly decided, that the statute had been amended since that ruling, and that the Quebec decision dif- fered from ABCP in that it dealt with independent releases, not releases that related to the restructuring," he says. "We also maintained that the Ontario Court of Appeal had followed modern rules of statutory the court refused leave, since the Quebec Court of Appeal had blocked the transaction," McElcheran says. "In ABCP, the restructuring would proceed most smoothly if the court did not intervene." Here, the following passage from McElcheran's factum is instructive. "This court has recently made clear that it is, and wishes to be, the most important business law court in Canada," he wrote. "In this case, unlike in BCE, this court's role as Canada's most important busi- ness law court would be enhanced by denying leave to appeal, not granting it." However that may be, one could forgive the dissidents for believing that the Supreme Court's col- lective ego should not be a factor in determining the fate of Canada's credit market. Dissidents, one might observe, are part of the business community too. LT MICHEL BAST ARACHE A former Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada joins Heenan Blaikie The law firm Heenan Blaikie is pleased to announce that the Honourable Michel Bastarache, who was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada until June 30, will be joining the firm's Ottawa office as Counsel. Although the Honourable Michel Bastarache will be based in Ottawa, his function will extend throughout Canada. Holder of several law degrees, the Honourable Michel Bastarache has had a distinguished career in the academic, legal, governmental, non-governmental and business communities. The long-standing experience and expertise of this distinguished jurist will represent valuable assets for the 475 lawyers and for the clients of Heenan Blaikie. Michel Bastarache • 613 236.3488 • mbastarache@heenan.ca Heenan Blaikie Heenan Blaikie LLP • Lawyers | Patent and Trade-mark Agents • Ottawa Toronto Montreal V ancouver Québec Calgar y Sherbrooke T rois-Rivières Victoria • heenanblaikie.com Untitled-2 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 9/22/08 9:42:32 AM

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