We have been heard! Nanc's case was heard by seven supreme court justices on October 14, 2008. We had an hour to present, LEAF then had ten minutes for their oral submission. There was a fifteen minute break, then the other side had an hour. The justices asked questions throughout, and we adjourned at 12:30 with judgement reserved.
Our case was simple, the trial judge ( Justice Slade) found that the separation agreement was unconscionable, that Nanc was exceptionally vulnerable due to the circumstances testified to in the trial and incapable of making rational decisions during the negotiations. Additionally, her ex-husband had hidden large amounts of cash and grossly undervalued the family assets in his sworn financial statements. Now, in
business law that would constitute fraud and charges would have been laid by the crown. In this case, he gets a pass because he was married to his victim, or maybe it was because she was just a woman?- go figure!?Nanc was represented by Jack Hittrich, Philip Epstein and Janette Kovacs. Nitya Iyer and Joanna Radbord appeared for LEAF.
LEAF developed an oustanding factum that broadened the issues in Nanc's case to include everyone involved in a dissolution of marriage, particularly women, as they tend to be disproportionally victimised by our antiquated laws and process. They founded their arguments solidly on the Charter, moving the case into a human rights arena. The justices will have much to work with on this one.
The fact is that many women of modest means are victimised in much the same way as Nanc was, but none of them have had the will or the resources to fight this far. Certainly, it has taken every resource we could muster over the last 6 years to get to this point. We were fairly well off before, now we are in debt and living with relatives. A friend and coworker of mi
ne asked me just before we left, "why don't you just settle? Take the money and call it a day?" I thought about that while we were in Ottawa, and when I saw him at work this morning, I gave him this answer:We must each answer to the line of our ancestors, who cry out, "make my life have meaning!" We must answer to our inheritors, who cry out, "create a world that we can believe in!" We must raise our eyes from our feet, trodding this path of life, to the horizon and the sky above, and realise that we are creating the future now, today, with every choice that we make. To do, or to do nothing, these are our choices.
