A carriage motion is meant to determine which one of a number of
competing proposed class proceedings may proceed in a province.
When there are parallel or related class proceedings in other
jurisdictions, the situation is more complex as there is no real
mechanism for the court of one jurisdiction to stay or make a
determination of preferability on class proceedings in another
jurisdiction.
In Kowalyshyn v Valeant Pharmaceuticals
Inc., 2016 ONSC 3819, two competing securities class
actions, O'Brien and Kowalyshyn, were present
in Ontario. In addition, there were two similar class proceedings
in BC, one in Quebec and several in the US. Each class action was
with respect to alleged misrepresentations made by Valeant
Pharmaceuticals that cost investors approximately $60 billion
worldwide. One of the Ontario actions, Kowalyshyn, was
associated with the two BC proceedings and the other,
O'Brien, with the Quebec proceeding.1 Plaintiffs'
counsel in the two Ontario
