Environmental Class Actions And Claims For Health-related Injuries: Causation And Its Pitfalls

On June 21, 2012, the Honourable Justice Bernard Godbout rendered a significant decision in the area of Environmental Class Actions, in the Spieser v. Canada (A.G.) case¹. This decision is important because the Superior Court was called upon to examine a claim for health-related injuries. This decision illustrates the very complex nature of a claim of this type and the challenges which the parties face in the context of such litigation, in particular in demonstrating the link between cause and effect between pollutants and health-related injuries. This litigation unfolded over 115 days of trial, during which 74 witnesses (of which 23 experts) were heard on complex and diverse questions in the fields of hydrogeology, vapor intrusion, toxicology, epidemiology and oncology.