HALIFAX – It was only three weeks ago that MLA John MacDonell told Nova Scotians they should be buying local, as the province launched new license plates to drive home the message.
Seems his counterparts didn’t get the memo.
Global News has learned the provincial government has hired a pair of Ontario lawyers to defend the province in a legal battle over the design of Bluenose II, even though comparable legal teams are available in Nova Scotia.
Court documents show the province is being represented by a Department of Justice lawyer Edward Gores, along with Steven Garland and Kevin Graham, two Ottawa-based lawyers from the firm Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh.
Bluenose II is owned by the province, but the ship’s design might not be. The historic vessel is undergoing reconstruction in Lunenburg harbour.
Dartmouth resident Joan Roué says her great-grandfather, William Roué, designed the original Bluenose schooner in 1921 and that the Nova Scotia government’s rebuilt vessel violates her family’s intellectual property rights. She says her family has copyright over the Bluenose design, and any substantial reproduction of it entitles her to compensation.
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As a backup argument, she says the current reconstruction uses the Bluenose name but doesn’t honour the integrity of the original design.
It’s a complex case in a complicated area of law.
Last year, Roué filed a lawsuit against the provincial government and six companies involved with Bluenose II’s reconstruction.
“This is certainly not beyond the expertise or the talent pool that we have here,” said Jonathon Penney, assistant professor at the Schulich School of Law.
Local lawyer Christene Hirschfeld agrees.
“Our firm, Boyne Clarke, has represented various parties on intellectual property law claims in the past,” she said. “Stewart McKelvey has done the same. And there are a few smaller boutique firms that have expertise too, so there are choices.”
The province says they can’t explain why they chose an out-of-province firm instead of a local one, because the matter is before the court.
“The province retained the firm of Smart & Biggar based in Ontario, and they retained that firm based on their expertise in intellectual property law,” said Glenn Friel, a representative from the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage.
The provincial government is also paying their legal team to represent other companies named in a lawsuit, according to a source with intimate knowledge of the matter.
The case hasn’t gone far. For months, Roué’s legal team and the respondents’ have butted heads on procedural issues.
The legal proceedings began in November 2012. The parties will be in front of a judge March 2014 to set dates and establish a schedule for the proceedings.
The provincial record of Public Accounts shows the government paid Smart & Biggar $202,744 last year alone.
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