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Council of Canadians lawyer Steven Shrybman said he doesn’t know exactly what the Conservatives intend to claim in their motion seeking to toss out the court action.

Hamilton has suggested in the past the court applications as filed would not satisfy the legal standard required to convince a judge to overturn a vote. Shrybman said that, while he hasn’t seen the motions, he has doubts about Hamilton’s position.

“I don’t think there’s any merit to either of the motions and we’ll vigorously defend,” he said.

The decision on the Conservatives’ motion will be made by a prothonotary, a court official who issues rulings on evidentiary issues and procedural matters.

Hamilton also plans to bring a second motion next week that also will ask that the seven cases be thrown out, Shrybman said.

Shrybman said that he doesn’t expect the motions will substantially slow down the case and he is hopeful the cases will be heard together at hearing sometime in the fall.

“The court understands the importance of these cases proceeding through the system without any unnecessary delay and it was intent on hearing the matter expeditiously,” he said.

The Council of Canadians is a left-of-centre organization originally formed to oppose the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. in the 1980s.

The Council has filed evidence from a former Conservative Party call centre worker from Thunder Bay who said she made calls to voters telling them their polling station had moved. It has also submitted an affidavit from pollster Frank Graves, who found a statistically significant percentage of people polled in the seven ridings had reported receiving harassing or misleading telephone calls before the election.