Recent years have seen repeated revelations of abuse in Canadian institutional settings, including schools, group homes, and correctional facilities. Class actions can allow individuals who were victimized in these settings to seek redress as part of a group and hold wrongdoers responsible. The utility of class actions in this context was first blessed by the Supreme Court of Canada over two decades ago in Rumley v British Columbia, a case that arose out of abuse at a residential school for deaf and blind children.
Siskinds represents the Plaintiff in a proposed class proceeding brought against Hatts Off. Hatts Off is a Hamilton-based corporation which establishes and operates for-profit group homes, among other things (see Global News: Ontario youth group home chain hit with $60 M proposed class-action over alleged 'abuse').
Siskinds’ lawyers also represent individuals in litigation, raising issues of human rights violations and transnational public law. Plaintiffs in such litigation assert claims that are not based exclusively on domestic or international law, but on a body of “transnational” law blending the two. Siskinds is on the front-lines of this area of law, and represented claimants in the first mass tort claim for modern slavery to go forward in a Canadian court, Araya v Nevsun Resources Ltd. Siskinds also acted as counsel for the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project in its intervention before for the Supreme Court of Canada in Chevron Corp. v Yaiguaje.
Contact a Siskinds institutional abuse and humanitarian class action lawyer today.
