Few would associate the phrase “Canadian court” with the word “shock”. But Wednesday’s judgment in favour of bondholders trying to block the leveraged buy-out of BCE came out of left field.

BCE will appeal to Canada’s Supreme Court. After all, the lower court did not rule that the buy-out plan itself was unfair and the C$52bn deal is probably too big to ignore. But the Supreme Court does not like to be rushed. In 2006, the average case took 17 months from an application being filed to a judgment being rendered – and that was the Supreme Court’s most efficient performance in a decade.