Rougher Waters To Come For Environmental Class Actions?

In 2001, at the time of the Supreme Court's decision in Western Canadian Shopping Centres Inc. v. Dutton, the future looked bright for environmental class action plaintiffs. In Dutton, McLachlin C.J.C. praised the access to justice afforded by class actions legislation and intimated that environmental claims ought to provide a solid foundation for a class action. Now, nearly 15 years later, the outlook is somewhat different, with, so far, only one example of an environmental class action decided on its merits in the common law provinces, and no successful environmental class actions (putting aside settlements) to speak of in common law Canada.

On February 4th at the Ontario Bar Association Institute Program on Environmental Law – Managing New Environmental Quagmires – Perspectives from the Litigation, Regulatory and Transactional Contexts – Osler's Jennifer Fairfax, an environmental litigator, will be discussing the reasons behind the dearth of successful