On July 8, 2020, the Ontario Government enacted major changes to
the Class Proceedings Act, 1992 (the “CPA”)
when the Lieutenant Governor gave Royal Assent to Bill
161—The Smarter and Stronger Justice Act,
2020. This represents the first major amendment to
the CPA since it was enacted 28 years ago.
Generally, these amendments are intended to make Ontario's
class actions regime more efficient and to effect a more level
balancing of rights between plaintiffs and defendants. These
amendments stem from a comprehensive review of Ontario's
class actions regime by the Law Commission of Ontario
(“LCO”), released in 2019. Fasken was directly
involved in that process as part of a small group of leading
Ontario class action defence lawyers who made submissions to LCO
about proposed reforms on behalf of several corporate
defence-oriented lawyer organizations.
