[taco.vidal]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...tion-1.3331001

The "independent" process through which Alberta chose a legal consortium for a $10-billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry was manipulated, allowing former premier Alison Redford the opportunity to select a consortium with close personal and political ties, a CBC News investigation has found.

Internal Alberta Justice documents obtained exclusively by CBC News show that a week before the legal consortium was personally selected by Redford as the "best choice" to represent Alberta, it had been ranked last of three by an independent review committee and effectively eliminated from consideration.

The documents show the review committee had eliminated International Tobacco Recovery Lawyers (ITRL) due to its "lack of depth." The committee instead recommended Redford choose between two other consortiums: Bennett Jones, and the paired firms of Field Law and McLennan Ross.

But internal briefing notes reveal the review committee's decision was effectively overruled, shortly after it was sent to a Redford staffer. ITRL was inexplicably inserted back into the competition, its last place ranking was removed, and within a week Redford chose ITRL, which is led by JSS Barristers, a small Calgary boutique law firm with close ties to Redford.