The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that the legal battle over the future of 25 former Hudson's Bay stores was heard in the Ontario Superior Court, where the retailer argued that B.C. billionaire Weihong (Ruby) Liu should be allowed to take over the leases. The Globe's Susan Krashinsky Robertson writes that major landlords contended that Ms. Liu would be "unfit" as a retail tenant. The proposed $69.1-million deal would enable Ms. Liu to launch a chain of department stores if approved. However, large mall owners like Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties and Ivanhoe Cambridge opposed it, questioning Ms. Liu's operational experience and the realism of her business plan. An HBC lawyer argued that rejecting the lease deal could set a concerning precedent for future bankruptcy cases. HBC lawyer Maria Konyukhova said the landlords are urging the court to impose an "absurdly high standard." She emphasized that Canadian insolvency law only requires the court to evaluate the "reasonableness" of an assignment, not a standard of "perfection or guaranteed success." All department stores nationwide have closed, and the company is no longer named Hudson's Bay after selling its intellectual property to Canadian Tire.