In Miller v. FSD Pharma Inc. (Miller), a decision released June 23, 2020, Morgan J. of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted leave to proceed with a putative secondary market securities class action under s. 138.3 of Part XXIII.1 of the Ontario Securities Act (OSA) against FSD Pharma Inc. (FSD), a new entrant into … Continue reading
On March 9, 2018, the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) released its Consultation Paper entitled “Class Actions: Objectives, Experiences and Reforms”. The Consultation Paper is the next phase of the LCO’s Class Actions Project which is set to conduct a general review of the class action landscape in Ontario, with a view to providing a … Continue reading
(The author was a member of the CBA National Class Actions Task Force 2016-2017) At the CBA Annual Meeting on February 15, 2018, a resolution to approve, as best practices, a revised Canadian Judicial Protocol for the Management of Multi-Jurisdictional Class Actions was approved. The resolution also urges Canadian courts that administer class actions to … Continue reading
Public companies can face significant securities litigation risk over defective algorithms, data errors and software glitches. As securities class action filings continue to increase across the board, plaintiffs lawyers have attacked numerous companies over stock price declines that occur after software problems are revealed. Recent court decisions denying dismissal in securities class actions against Fitbit … Continue reading
A gold mining company chooses not to disclose preliminary mineral sampling results that it viewed as unreliable. Further testing eventually proves the preliminary sample to be inaccurate. In Wong v Pretium Resources, 2017 ONSC 3361 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted leave for a plaintiff to proceed with a securities class action under s. … Continue reading
Securities class action filings have hit record highs in the United States. In 2016, the United States observed the highest number of securities class action filings since “the early 2000s dot-com crash.”[1] By July of this year, 246 new securities class actions claims were filed in U.S. federal courts.[2] This phenomenon comes as little surprise; … Continue reading