Class Actions

Introduction On July 24, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada brought clarity over a longstanding question in Atlantic Lottery Corp. Inc. v. Babstock,1 Waiver of tort as an independent cause of action that did not require proof of damages has been a concept up in the air, which has finally sett…

In the recent case of Miller v FSD Pharma, Inc.1, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice clarified the standard for materiality in a motion for leave to commence an action under s. 138.3 of the Ontario Securities Act (“OSA”) for misrepresentations in secondary market disclosure. We have proba…

Introduction The British Columbia Supreme Court’s recent decision in Warner v Google LLC (“Warner”)1, a privacy class action related to the collection of data from smartphones, puts the role of the representative plaintiff and the nature of the solicitor-client relationship in the class acti…

On June 26, 2020 the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Uber Technologies Inc. v. Heller 2020 SCC 16. In an eight-one majority, the SCC held that the plaintiff Uber driver could proceed with his class action against Uber, despite the mandatory arbitration clause contained in a …

We may only be a few years away from a Netflix special on the Quadriga collapse. There would be plenty to fill a script in last month’s release of an investigative report from the Ontario Securities Commission, which found that Quadriga was a fraud and Ponzi scheme (the “OSC Report”). …

On July 7, 2020, the Ontario government voted to pass the most significant changes to the province’s Class Proceedings Act, 1992 in the entire history of the legislation. For the full picture of what the amended Act will look like, click on this updated version of the Class Proceeding Act, c…

Crypto-currency trading platforms (“Crypto-Platforms”) received an unwelcome surprise last month, when eleven of them were hit with coordinated class action suits in America by two law firms. The class actions target some of the largest crypto-currency exchanges in the world: Binance, Bibox …

On February 28, 2020 the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, 2020 SCC 5. By a narrow five-four majority, the SCC held Canadian companies may be sued for breaches of Customary International Law (“CIL”), abroad. Writing for the majority, Abella J. b…

Last week, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) published guidance on situations when securities legislation may apply to entities that facilitate crypto-currency trading. The CSA is an umbrella organization of securities regulators from each of the provinces and territories. T…

This year is going to be a Happy New Year for The BitCoin Fund (the “Fund”), whose final prospectus was approved by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). It is the first public bitcoin fund to be cleared by any Canadian securities regulator.  The Bitcoin Fund is a public investment trust …