As the opioid crisis continues to ravage communities across
Canada, urgent action is needed to address this growing problem.
There is potential for class actions against drug producers and
distributors in Canada for their roles in causing this devastating
social issue. In this blog post, we take a brief dive into an issue
that has impacted hundreds of thousands of people—and
disproportionately Indigenous peoples—across what we call
North America.
In 2018, the Province of British Columbia launched a class
action against multiple producers and distributors of prescription
opioid medication. The defendant companies constituted roughly 50
pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors
involved in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of
opioid-related products in Canada. The case—Valeant
Canada LP/Valeant Canada S.E.C. v. British Columbia
("Valeant")1—made
its way to the Court of Appeal for British Columbia
("Court of Appeal"), which heard an
appeal of
