On October 1, 2021, more than a year after Equibit Group Ltd. served its Statement of Claim, the Attorney General of Canada finally delivered a Statement of Defense in the lawsuit against CSIS and other Crown defendants.
This filing came long after the deadlines prescribed by the Rules of Civil Procedure.
The Delay
Under Rule 18.01 of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure, a defendant must normally deliver a Statement of Defense within 20 days after service of the Statement of Claim.
If a Notice of Intent to Defend is filed (as the Attorney General did on October 13, 2020), the deadline extends to 40 days from service of the Claim.
Instead, the Attorney General took over a year to respond — a delay that is extraordinary even by government standards in complex litigation.
Read the Statement of Defense here:
From the Perspective of a Citizen Seeking Fairness
For any Canadian who still wants to believe in procedural fairness and the rule of law, this timeline is deeply troubling.
When an ordinary citizen or small company is sued, missing procedural deadlines can result in default judgment and severe consequences. Yet here, the Government of Canada — the very institution charged with upholding the law — took more than a year to file its defense in a case alleging serious misconduct by its own intelligence agency.
This is not mere bureaucratic delay. In the context of allegations involving surveillance, sabotage, and abuse of power, such extended inaction raises serious questions about accountability and whether the system is structured to protect powerful institutions rather than deliver timely justice.
What Comes Next
The late filing does not diminish the strength of Equibit’s case. The public evidence archive at equibitlawsuit.com continues to grow, and the full Factum of Equibit Group — which will synthesize all available evidence into one comprehensive record — is in active preparation.
Every procedural step, every delay, and every document filed becomes part of the permanent record.
The pursuit of accountability continues.
