CLASS ACTIONS
A MAJOR
EVOLUTION
IN CLASS ACTION
LITIGATION
SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS,
WHICH OFTEN HAVE CROSS-BORDER
ELEMENTS, ARE FACING THREATS ON
A NUMBER OF FRONTS IN CANADA
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
BY JULIUS MELNITZER
ENFORCEMENT ISSUES and the fate of securities class actions are dominating what is turning out to be a watershed year in the evolution of class action litigation in Canada.
On the multi-jurisdictional enforcement front, Judge Katherine van Rensburg of the Ontario
Superior Court of Justice agreed to remove NASDAQ investors from a class of Ontario investors
certified in an action alleging misrepresentations in IMAX financial reports, leaving only the 15
percent of the class that had bought their shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The March 2013 ruling followed on the settlement of a parallel proceeding that a US court
had approved on condition that the Ontario class be reduced. The case is important, according to
Andrea Laing, Ryan Morris and Max Shapiro, the authors of a Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP's
Securities Litigation Bulletin, because it demonstrates that class sizes can be reduced after certification, shows that globally certified cases do not need to be settled on a global basis and indicates
that Ontario courts are willing to show deference to US judges in multi-jurisdictional cases.
For their part, securities class actions, which often have cross-border features because so many
US and Canadian companies are cross-listed on the exchanges of the two countries, are facing
threats on two fronts.
To begin with, the Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave in what has become known
as the "market timing" case, which puts into issue whether private class actions can co-exist with
regulatory enforcement proceedings.
www.lexpert.ca | LEXPERT • December 2013 | 17
