The Toronto Real Estate Board’s request to have a Chief Justice removed from the trial over public access to home-sales data has been denied.
 
On the first day of the long-awaited trial, in which the Competition Bureau is challenging a TREB policy about online sold data, the real estate board requested that Chief Justice Paul Crampton recuse himself from the case due to his involvement in a similar lawsuit more than a decade ago.
 
According to CTV, the Federal Court Chief Justice has rejected that application, arguing no reasonable person would perceive him as being biased on the basis of his very limited involvement in a similar case 14 years ago when, in fact, he was a private practice lawyer.
 
The motion, which was put forward and rejected this morning, is the latest step in an increasingly drawn-out disagreement between TREB and the Competition Bureau.
 
The hearing is expected to continue this week and again the week of October 5.