A judge considering an application to set aside a default judgment may identify a gap in the applicant's evidence on a critical element of the proposed defence without impermissibly conducting a weighing exercise or resolving credibility disputes. Where the proposed defence rests on mere assertion on a critical issue (here, attribution of knowledge to the lender), the judge is entitled to find no prima facie defence on the merits. Verification of a proposed defence in the form 'true to the best of my knowledge' is deficient where it conflates matters within the deponent's knowledge with matters based on information and belief without complying with r 430 UCPR.
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