After a loooong wait, Justice McEwen issued his ruling yesterday on the request by Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation to be allowed to ask for a seat at the mediation table. Last fall they initiated a request to appoint a representative for the "Future Tobacco Harm Stakeholders" -- Canadian smokers not otherwise represented in the settlement discussions.
His answer was a firm "no".
No matter the merits of the organization, their request came too late. They did not act with "due diligence in the circumstances" and waited too long to make this request. Nor did this judge find that anything had changed since the process began to justify a late-breaking request or to justify agreeing to one.
Moreover, he said, it was too late in the process to risk disruption and delaying an agreement among the parties who had been talking without any input from Heart and Stroke or other health organizations. "The Mediation appears to be reaching its latter stages after four years.... A resolution is in sight."
This ruling was published 74 days after the arguments were made before him (April 14) and 4 days before his retirement (July 1). One more "winding up" for this commercial court judge.
