Star DIAM Mentioned (Fri, 27 May) - Summary by Will PurcellStar Diamond's newest director is one of its expert testifiers. One company hoping to capitalize on demand for natural diamonds is Ewan Mason and Ken MacNeill's Star Diamond Corp. (DIAM). Star, which lost one-half cent to 26.5 cents on 620,000 shares today, wrapped up its annual general meeting earlier this month. All four nominee directors were re-elected but once again, retail shareholders issued a mild rebuke to Mr. MacNeill, withholding 14.6 million votes to keep his approval rating at just under 90 per cent.
Mr. Mason, chairman, polled over 99 per cent of the shares voted, while the other two more recent appointees also did well. Lisa Riley, added as a director for her experience in financial matters in early 2020, got 99 per cent support and Larry Phillips, who was added earlier this year, got 98.6 per cent approval.
The Toronto-based Mr. Phillips, a lawyer who co-founded Iamgold Corp. in 1990, is a busy fellow on Bay Street and although he arrived just three months ago, he does have a prior connection to the company. When Star Diamond launched its request for an injunction seeking to prevent Rio Tinto Exploration Canada Inc. (RTEC) from calling a joint-venture management committee meeting in the spring of 2020, Star called upon Mr. Phillips to offer expert testimony.
"Not fair!" cried RTEC's lawyers, who complained that Mr. Phillips was "not a properly qualified expert," claiming that he was not "impartial, independent and unbiased as an expert witness must be." Justice G.M. Currie of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench, who presided over the case, disagreed, although he did state that Mr. Phillips's testimony went beyond the scope of his expertise and roamed into an area reserved to the court.
Justice Currie said that Mr. Phillips not only presented his duly qualified expert opinion, but he also went further, offering "opinion evidence" that was "neither helpful nor appropriate," and on occasion going so far as to present argument as to how the evidence that is before the court should be construed. "On this application construing the evidence is my job," Justice Currie huffed.
At the end of the day, while he rejected much of Mr. Phillips's testimony, Justice Currie decided that "while the similarity of views held by Mr. Phillips and Mr. MacNeill could be as sinister as RTEC suggests, it could [also] be only that both persons hold the same views," concluding that "it may be simply that Star Diamond located an expert witness whose views accord with the views of Star Diamond." And now, Mr. MacNeill and his crew apparently have located a new director whose views accord with those of the company.