Recent Quebec Manulife Decision – Canary In The Coalmine?

Last week (on May 7, 2014), Justice Soldevida, J.S.C. of the Quebec Superior Court released her judgment in the Manulife case.¹ She ordered Manulife Financial to release without redaction all 63 documents sought by the plaintiffs in a class action law suit that related to interactions and interventions by Manulife's federal regulator (OSFI) respecting risk assessments and capital adequacy concerns leading up to and following the economic crisis of 2008. Manulife argued that the documents, which included Audit and Risk Committee minutes, Executive Committee minutes and presumably communications between the company and OSFI, were protected by statutory confidentiality provisions imposed by Regulations² under the Insurance Companies Act (ICA) and the Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions Act (OSFI Act).