Commercial Court appoints legal counsel for Canwest salaried employees and
retirees

OTTAWA, March 10 /CNW Telbec/ - In an endorsement issued on March 5, 2010 from the Commercial Court in Toronto handling Canwest's CCAA proceedings, Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP and Shibley Righton LLP were jointly appointed as legal counsel for continuing and former salaried employees and retirees.

    
    "It would be of considerable benefit to both the Applicants and the
    Salaried Employees and Retirees to have Representatives and
    representative counsel who would interact with the Applicants and
    represent the interests of the Salaried Employees and Retirees." (...).
    "The appointment of the Representatives and representative counsel would
    facilitate the administration of the proceedings and information flow and
    provide for efficiency," stated Justice J. Pepall.
    

The Commercial Court formally recognized "the Salaried Employees and Retirees" group and ordered that Russell Mills, Blair Mackenzie, Rejean Saumure and Les Bale be appointed as "the Representatives" on behalf of salaried employees, former employees and retirees of Canwest Publishing Inc./Publications Canwest Inc., Canwest Books, Inc., Canwest (Canada) and Canwest Limited Partnership and the Canwest Global Canadian Newspaper Entities (collectively the "LP Entities") or any person claiming an interest under or on behalf of such salaried employees, former employees or retirees including beneficiaries and surviving spouses, as stated in the March 5, 2010 Reasons for Decision.

It is anticipated that additional Representatives will be appointed to reflect the continuing (current) employees interests.

To keep informed of progress or to raise questions, all current, former or retired employees of the LP Entities falling into the group as identified above, are welcome to join Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP's confidential email communication list. Send name and coordinates to [email protected].

Additional information about the proceedings can be obtained from www.nelligan.ca. Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP's website will be updated as the matter progresses.

Justice Pepall's 10-page decision is posted on www.nelligan.ca

Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP and Shibley Righton LLP will provide formal notification to continuing and former salaried employees and retirees of Justice Pepall's order.

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Julie Beaucaire, Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP, [phone], [email protected]; Thomas McRae, Shibley Righton LLP, [phone], [email protected]