The Toronto trial of two men accused of defrauding St. Michael’s Hospital and taxpayers is a “selective prosecution” that ignores how a $300-million procurement competition was tainted by the potentially unlawful actions of others, defence lawyers are arguing in downtown Superior Court.
It seems “odd” that the Crown is alleging the bidding process for a lucrative construction contract was perverted, “but we can only talk about one select part of the perversion, when the other perversions may have affected the process as well,” defence lawyer Peter Brauti told Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden, who is hearing the case without a jury.