Monday 5 May 2014

The show didn't go on!

Some further cuts were made to the few remaining scheduled days of hearings at the Montreal tobacco trials - and the hearings for today and tomorrow were cancelled.

The American risk specialist, Paul Slovic, will now not testify as part of the plaintiffs "counter-proof."

Mr. Slovic had been asked to rebut the views of the defendants witness on warnings, Kip Viscusi. His brief expert opinion had been reduced when Justice Riordan granted the request by the defendants for the removal of some sections

I am told that the other witness scheduled for this Thursday -- Ms. Mary Trudelle -- will also not be appearing. (I do not know if she has been permanently dropped from the list). Ms. Trudelle was a public relations official with JTI-Macdonald, and testified at the request of the plaintiffs in October, 2012

There are a few procedural issues identified last week that have not been resolved -- more on those later this week!

The trial will sit -- I think! -- on Wednesday.