National Coordination Of Class Actions

National or multi-jurisdictional class actions are common in Canada, regularly giving rise to parallel and overlapping cases across multiple provinces. This often happens in life sciences litigation, where claims relating to the same drug or device are advanced in multiple jurisdictions, leading to carriage disputes and allegations of abuse of process. Without a national framework for managing class proceedings, Canadian courts are often called upon to decide how overlapping class actions should proceed. National coordination has emerged as a response to these challenges, which, if unaddressed, have the potential to undermine a core objective of class proceedings-judicial economy.

The Ontario Superior Court recently considered these issues in Strathdee v. Johnson & Johnson Inc., 2026 ONSC 1186, a proposed multi-jurisdictional class action arising from alleged injuries associated with talc-based baby powder products. Justice Leiper refused to stay the Ontario action as an abuse of