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ARTICLE · 12 JANUARY 2018

Corporate Social Responsibility And The Rana Plaza Class Action

Bennett Jones LLP
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On July 5, 2017, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a 129-page decision in the Rana Plaza class action (Das v George Weston Limited, 2017 ONSC 4129), a proposed class action brought in Ontario ...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Nina Butz
Nina Butz
Ethan Schiff
Ethan Schiff
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On July 5, 2017, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a 129-page decision in the Rana Plaza class action (Das v George Weston Limited, 2017 ONSC 4129), a proposed class action brought in Ontario on behalf of Bangladeshis injured in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka in 2013 and their families. 2520 were injured and 1130 died in the collapse.

The plaintiffs sued Canadian retailer Loblaw Inc. and three affiliates (including Joe Fresh Apparel Canada Inc.), which had indirectly sourced clothing through factories in Rana Plaza, and French testing, inspection, and certification company Bureau Veritas SA and two affiliates, which had been engaged to perform two limited social audits of a factory in Rana Plaza. Bennett Jones LLP were lawyers for the Bureau Veritas defendants. The plaintiffs alleged that the adoption by Loblaws of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy created a duty to protect workers manufacturing products in factories down

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