On December 4 the Supreme Court of Canada released its
long-awaited decision1 in a trilogy of secondary market
securities class action appeals that were argued together. The
appeals raise a number of important issues going to Part XXIII.1 of
the Ontario Securities Act (the Act) and the certification
of common law misrepresentation claims alongside statutory claims
under Part XXIII.1.
Unfortunately, the SCC's decision focuses almost entirely on
limitation period issues now rendered academic by amendments to the
Act. A majority of the SCC concluded that s. 28 of the Class
Proceedings Act, 1992 (CPA) operates to suspend the three-year
limitation period contained in s. 138.14 of the Act only when leave
has been granted under s. 138.8 of the Act. The decision on this
point is of no consequence other than for the parties to the
appeal, as section 138.14 of the Act had already been amended,
effective July 2014, to suspend the limitation period on the date a
motion for leave
