Class Actions

In Cavanaugh et al. v. Grenville Christian College et al., 2021 ONCA 755, a unanimous Court of Appeal upheld a decision answering five common issues in the plaintiffs’ favour. This was a resounding win for the class. Class proceedings rarely go to trial. In addition to being a rare common is…

The public correction of misrepresentations has come to play an increasingly prominent role in decisions for leave to proceed with the statutory case of action for misrepresentation provided to secondary market investors under Part XXIII.1 of the Securities Act. In Baldwin v Imperial Metals …

In Dufault v Toronto Dominion Bank, 2021 ONSC 6223, the Ontario Superior Court considered the sequencing of pre-certification motions under s. 4.1 of the amended Class Proceedings Act for the first time. The amendment provides as follows: Early resolution of issues 4.1 If, before the hearing…

A decision from the Divisional Court last month confirms that defendants cannot avoid litigating against the best-prepared plaintiff by strategically defending (or not defending) certification motions in different jurisdictions. The decision, Kirsh v Bristol-Myers Squibb, 2021 ONSC 6190, uph…

In Badesha v Cronos Group, Justice Morgan denied the plaintiff’s motions for leave to proceed with statutory misrepresentation claims under Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act (“OSA”) and for certification pursuant to the Class Proceedings Act, 1992. The case raises interesting questi…

Gramoxone® is a non-selective herbicide used to control broadleaf weeds and grasses with an active ingredient called paraquat.  It is alleged that paraquat exposure is linked to Parkinson’s disease. Siskinds Desmeules, Siskinds LLP’s Quebec-based affiliate, has filed a class action law…

On March 25, 2021 the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released its decision References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11.1 While the question before the Court was the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction, the practical effect of the decision was describing ho…

Ontario Court rejects notion that class members must be “clones.” Judges on a certification motion do understand that class members are not clones and even if they were clones, judges understand that individual clones may have had different experiences with the defendant. Commonality is not …

Canadian regulators have escalated their confrontation with unregistered Crypto-Platforms.1 On May 25, 2021, the OSC issued a Notice of Hearing and Statement of Allegations2 accusing Polo Digital Assets, Ltd., a Crypto-Platform operating under the name Poloniex, of registration and disclosur…