Friends,
Here we go! After the huge amount of work leading up to the hearing in the Ontario Superior Court and the disappointing ruling against us, we will be going before the Ontario Court of Appeal asking that the judgment be set aside. Many of you have been calling, emailing and stopping us in the street urging us not to give up now. You’ve been offering your strong support, financial and otherwise, in support of an appeal.
Much of the work has already been done: documents obtained, arguments prepared. The appeal court requires a more limited presentation than the superior court, so we will be focusing on aspects where we believe we have the strongest case from a legal standpoint.
The good news is that an appeal will not be as costly as the hearing was. The not-so-good news is that there’s still a big legal bill to pay from all the work done to date. We need to keep raising money. Steven Shrybman and his colleagues at Sack Goldblatt Mitchell are committed to going ahead with this no matter how much more we can pay, but we need to show them we are just as committed to this as they are. They need both our moral and financial support.
People say they can’t believe that we’ve raised more than $200,000 to date. Well, I can! The level of commitment by FOL supporters to seeing this through is amazing. I know the support will keep coming.
One of the reasons it is so important to appeal is that this there’s never before been a case like this in Canada. A victory on appeal will establish an important national precedent. We had a lot of local publicity around the hearing and the decision. We expect the appeal will attract media and public attention well beyond the boundaries of Ottawa.
By the way, the City has spent a reported $1.3 million on legal fees to date. This shows how much work OUR lawyers have been willing to do with whatever we are able to pay them. Let's show them how much we appreciate it!
Thanks again for your wonderful support to this point. Please help out again.
Ken Shipley
kship@web.ca
You can make a donation
- online at www.letsgetitright.ca
- in person at any TD bank to account 3248-5207023 (please let our Treasurer know)
- by email at (FoL.Donations@gmail.com)
- by mail at Friends of Lansdowne
c/o Ted Lupinski CA
137 Second Ave, Suite 2
Ottawa ON K1S 2H4
Let's Get It Right!
