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“Osisko would never have [participated] in the Calgary meeting and would not have shared, as exhaustively as it did, its confidential information at that meeting had it known that Goldcorp did not have the intention to honour its commitment to extend the standstill protections … in similar ways to that of the confidentiality agreement in effect at the time,” Mr. Coates said.

He added that Goldcorp appeared to start planning its bid right after the Calgary meeting, as it wanted to move ahead while it still had an “informational advantage” over shareholders and other gold companies.

The $2.6-billion hostile offer was finally announced Jan. 13.

Osisko believes the bid is illegal because several key players involved in it had access to this confidential information, which they were not permitted to act on.

Even though the standstill was no longer in place by January, Goldcorp had to use a “non-contaminated” team of people (who did not have the data) to mount the bid, according to Osisko. Otherwise, it violates the terms of the confidentiality agreement between the companies, which remains in effect (only the standstill portion is expired).

Most notably, Osisko claims that Goldcorp wrongly shared the confidential data with the Bank of Nova Scotia, which is one of the key players in this hostile offer. The bank is lending Goldcorp US$1.25-billion for the bid and is also acting as its financial advisor.

Lawyers for both companies appeared in court on Friday before Judge Louis Gouin to argue the case.

Goldcorp’s lawyers claimed they had just received the lawsuit and needed more time to review it.

The judge took some time to discuss the details of the case. He was clearly disturbed by some of Osisko’s allegations, but acknowledged that he has not yet heard Goldcorp’s side of the story.

“This meeting in Calgary is what bothers me the most,” he said in French. “There’s something that troubles me about that meeting. You get the impression that there was a gentlemen’s agreement.”

With files from Drew Hasselback