Woods J found that the taxpayer was willfully blind in acquiescing to her tax preparers' plans to claim a fictitious business loss for her 2009 taxation year which was in excess of her employment income for that year, and therefore that the s. 163(2) penalties against her were well founded.
On the matter of costs, the taxpayer asked for sympathy, as the penalty would have been levied on lower underlying tax if (contrary to s. 163(2.1)) the penalty had been computed on the basis of the off-setting of income over four years. Woods J stated (at para. 31):
I am not persuaded by an argument based on sympathy. I accept that the penalty is higher in this case than it would be in others, but the participation of Ms. McLeod in this scheme is reprehensible.