Drabinsky seeks curtain call on jail term

By Michele Mandel

Garth Drabinsky's lawyers will be at the Ontario Court of Appeal Friday morning seeking bail for the convicted fraudster while they take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. (Sun file photo)

TORONTO - Convicted theatre impresario Garth Drabinsky is seeking to cut his new jail performance short.
Just three weeks into his prison term, his lawyers will be at the Ontario Court of Appeal Friday morning seeking bail for the convicted fraudster while they take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.
It will be the final act for the co-founder of Livent Inc. Canada's highest court only hears cases involving errors of law, and refuses to hear the majority of appeal requests that come before it.
In the bail application, lawyer Eddie Greenspan said Drabinsky should be freed pending a Supreme Court decision because their grounds for appeal to the top court are "not frivolous," Drabinsky is not a flight risk and his release "would not be contrary to the public interest."
On Sept. 13, Drabinsky and his former partner Myron Gottlieb were sent to prison after the Ontario Court of Appeal refused to overturn their 2009 fraud convictions. Instead, the three judges cut their original jail sentences by two years — Drabinsky's to five years and Gottlieb's to four.