Feds’ attempt to block ’60s Scoop ruling slammed as unprecedented, galling
TORONTO — An extraordinary 11th-hour government attempt to stop a judge from ruling on a bitter eight-year legal fight over the so-called ’60s Scoop is under fire from the plaintiffs and observers, who denounced it Wednesday as galling and unprecedented political interference in judicial proceedings.
In a blistering note to Ontario Superior Court, the plaintiffs urge Justice Edward Belobaba to reject the Liberal government’s request to put his decision on ice one week before he was expected to issue it.
“It is difficult to provide a measured and professional response to this request by new counsel for (Canada),” Morris Cooper, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in an email to Belobaba obtained by The Canadian Press.
“This unprecedented, unilateral request by the defendant (amounts to) shameless audacity, impudence, gall, or effrontery.”