The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Justice Peter Osborne of the Ontario Superior Court ruled last week that Ottawa must pay hefty damages to the original investors of Mobilicity because the government arbitrarily changed its spectrum policy and repeatedly interfered in the sale of the company. Globe's Rita Trichur writes that the case stems from a 2013 decision by the then-Harper government to retroactively change the rules governing spectrum transfers to prohibit the resale of new-entrant wireless licences to established carriers. In doing so, Ottawa reneged on representations it made to persuade investors, including U.S. private equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC and holding company Obelysk Media, to capitalize on Mobilicity. The feds had provided assurances that new entrants could sell their spectrum licences to established carriers Rogers, BCE and Telus after a five-year moratorium period expired in 2014. Those promises of transferability, made at various times and in various forms starting in 2006, were a key inducement because they mitigated investment risk. Instead, the government scuttled at least three takeover offers from Telus and Mobilicity was eventually sold to Rogers for a lower price.