I see that the Freeps Dan Lett - Crocus reversals a flip-flop fandango finally picked up on something that shows up in the Global TV video in my blog entry “Some More Crocus Humour” from last week - “Bellan told a local television reporter that “a courtroom is hardly a place where you’re going to get to the truth.”
A giant Tim the Tool-man confused - “Haaaaaaaaarugh” to that one. Last time I heard the oath or affirmation used in court included something along the lines of “Do you swear/affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”.
Does this mean the oral evidence covered by the testimony will be filled with complete candor and honesty? Well, no it doesn’t. Because the truth in this context has only to do with answers to questions that are asked, and if the right questions aren’t asked then the truth isn’t relevant.
So then what is Bellan saying by his statement “a courtroom is hardly a place where you’re going to get to the truth”? Damned if I know. But I do know one thing - he is the sole plaintiff in a class action, where the class action lawyers have reached tentative settlements that allow all the defendants to never publicly disclose anything about the events at Crocus.
In exchange the shareholders will get back less than 5% of what Crocus was supposedly worth when the Manitoba Security Commission applied to the Courts to have Crocus put into Receivership. Let’s do the math. On paper Crocus was worth 170M $$$ - 5% of that is 8.5 M $$$. The settlements total about 12M $$$, less lawyers fees that leaves about 7 M $$$.
But, but, but here’s the interesting part. Manitoba has what’s called ‘litigant friendly’ class action legislation. In a nut shell what that means is that every shareholder of Crocus is automatically included in a certified class action and will be bound by whatever terms Bellan and the class action lawyers agree to with the defendants.
In other words one crocus shareholder can prevent not only every other shareholder from hearing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, but arcane concepts such as candor and honesty as well.
Maybe that’s why I find badly done parodies in You Tube, like this one, so funny - especially if they make me think about Crocus.
