Things get testy at robocalls court case over pollster's treatment
OTTAWA - A pollster's treatment at the hands of a Conservative party lawyer made for a testy day at the robocalls court challenge on Wednesday.
Lawyer Steven Shrybman says his counterpart Arthur Hamilton went too far with his tactics.
"I can't imagine a more egregious form of character assassination," Shrybman said.
Hamilton grilled Ekos Research president Frank Graves earlier this week over donations to the federal Liberals and inconsistencies in prior court affidavits submitted as part of the case.
He was trying to call into question Graves' credibility as a key witness in a legal bid to overturn Conservative victories in six closely contested ridings.
But Shrybman says the Tory lawyer went way over the line, saying Hamilton abused the judicial process.
"What there was, was taking almost an hour of this court's time to allow Mr. Hamilton a platform to assail Mr. Graves' integrity because — the assertion is — that he didn't remember the precise nature of a political contribution that he made six years ago," Shrybman said.
Shrybman represents eight voters who are challenging the results in six ridings over allegations that misleading or harassing phone calls kept some people from voting and may have affected the results.
The left-leaning Council of Canadians is paying the legal bills for the eight.
