Canadian court overturns Globalive federal government ruling

WIND Mobile

A federal court has struck down the federal government’s ruling that allowed Globalive to launch its WIND Mobile brand in late 2009. “That decision was based on errors of law and must be quashed,” Mr. Justice Roger Hughes of Federal Court wrote in his decision.

The case was brought to court last year by Public Mobile. Its CEO said that he wanted to clear up the country’s foreign ownership laws given that 32 percent of Globalive’s voting shares and 65 percent of the total equity is owned by Egypt-based Orascom Telecom. Canadian laws restrict foreign ownership to 20 percent of a telecom company’s voting shares. The case was also supported by Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and TELUS.

Not unexpectedly, Globalive was not thrilled with the ruling:

“We are very disappointed with this decision,” Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera said. “We are examining our options but this is not over yet. We don’t intend to back down.”

Judge Hughes set a 45-day stay of judgment that will allow Globalive to continue to operate for now and give it a chance to appeal the ruling.

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