Federal Court - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure Developments ...

Page: 141
479 In some respects counsel on both sides of this action have, in
my respectful view, fallen into the trap lawyers, particularly lawyers
involved with issues of contract, often fall into. The focus of much of
their efforts in argument has been on a series of highly refined and
narrowly focused issues in which their attention has been engaged
with issues which the general public might well view as the splitting
of hairs.
480 In these comments I do not wish to be taken as being critical
of counsel or their efforts, indeed this is a case in which the gratitude
of the court should be extended to the counsel who appeared at this
trial. In attempting to carry out their task, counsel is required to refine
and articulate their respective clients' positions in seeking to advance
them. It is a process which is by design and necessity, a partisan one
in which, in theory, the truth emerges from the adversarial process.
2010 FC 495 (CanLII)
481 The nature of the discipline of law and the techniques of legal
analysis tend towards a type of focused and narrow analysis which
isolates attention on narrow issues.
482 The task of the trial judge must be to bring to the process a
detached examination of the case as a whole before turning to any
microscopic examination of any individual issue.
…
484 These characterizations move the conflict from the personal
to the theoretical, they engage amorphous and broad issues of public
policy and focus attention on technical matters.
485 With respect, that is not, in reality, what this action is about.
This case is about a much more profound and yet simple question.
Can the defendant induce a private citizen, in this case a corporation,
to enter into a contract which offers to the plaintiff payment in very
specific terms by delivery of 5,000,000 cubic metres of wood, and
then through use of its power and legislative capacity fundamentally
change the bargain, years later
[562] While there are factual differences between Carrier Lumber Ltd. and the present case, there
are some similarities, including the “series of highly refined and narrowly focused issues…which
the general public might well view as the splitting of hairs” that were argued by the Defendant. As