Friday, March 6th, 2009 ::: Law: Strategic Media Suit

Strategic Media’s lawyer, Robert Cohen of Cassels Brock, has unsuccessfully (and falsely) accused IllegalSigns.ca of writing half the comments obtained by the City during the signs by-law harmonization public consultation process.

In the Ontario Superior Court’s decision on Strategic Media’s motion to injunct the City from removing their illegal billboards, the Court completely rejected Cohen’s outlandish and desperate accusation when it said this in Paragraph 40:

While, pursuant to RJR-MacDonald, I can assume that the public interest favours compliance with the existing sign by-laws, there is also evidence of specific public interest in this case in the form of the complaints by a public interest group and the comments obtained by the City in the process of harmonizing its sign by-laws.

Those comments are here:

The comments were the subject of Chris Bilton’s Eye Weekly article “Toronto vs. billboards.”

This PDF is the cross-examination of a Buildings department official regarding the comments, which are known at “Exhibit K.” Robert Cohen is doing the questioning; Brown is Toronto’s lawyer; and Laughlin is the one being questioned. They are discussing whether the coordinator of IllegalSigns.ca, Rami Tabello, is behind the comments:

Cute haircut.