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ARTICLE · 10 NOVEMBER 2017

Plaintiffs Can't Depose Competition Bureau Investigator In Price-Fixing Class Action

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The Supreme Court of Canada held today that civil plaintiffs cannot examine for discovery (aka depose) a Competition Bureau investigator: Canada (Attorney General) v. Thouin, 2017 SCC 46.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Emrys Davis
Emrys Davis
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The Supreme Court of Canada held today that civil plaintiffs cannot examine for discovery (aka depose) a Competition Bureau investigator: Canada (Attorney General) v. Thouin, 2017 SCC 46.

The Court observed that, at common law, the Crown once enjoyed several immunities, including immunity from discovery and document production. Legislation has clearly and unequivocally lifted some of those immunities so that the federal Crown now has similar discovery and document production obligations to private litigants—but only when it is a party to the lawsuit. The Court held that no legislation clearly and unequivocally lifts the federal Crown's immunity from discovery when it is not a party to the lawsuit. Thus, the lower courts were wrong to order the Bureau investigator to be examined for discovery in a price-fixing class action to which the Crown is not a party.

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