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ARTICLE · 03 MARCH 2021

Another Reminder Of The Low Bar For Class Action Certification In British Columbia

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In McCorquodale v RBC Global Asset Management Inc., 2021 BCSC 144, the British Columbia Supreme Court relied on the principle of consistency in case law in applying a low bar to certification...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Nina Butz
Nina Butz
Ethan Schiff
Ethan Schiff
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In McCorquodale v RBC Global Asset Management Inc., 2021 BCSC 144, the British Columbia Supreme Court relied on the principle of consistency in case law in applying a low bar to certification in class proceedings. In doing so, B.C. continues to be one of the friendliest Canadian jurisdictions for class action certification. With changes to Ontario's class action legislation intended to raise the bar for certification, it is anticipated that more national class actions will be litigated in B.C.

McCorquodale  is the second class action to be certified in Canada regarding allegations of "closet indexing," involving a purportedly actively managed fund merely tracking the stock selection of benchmark indexes, such as the S&P/TSX composite. The first was Stenzler v TD Asset Management Inc, 2020 ONSC 111 (leave to appeal denied: 2020 ONSC 5987).

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