Court Divided on Permissibility of Hearings Outside of Ontario in Multijurisdictional Class Proceedings

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision, Parsons v. Ontario, has restricted the circumstances in which the Ontario Superior Court may sit outside Ontario to facilitate simultaneous motions in a multijurisdictional class action. A majority of the Court of Appeal held that such hearings must have a video link to an Ontario courtroom in order to ensure that the proceedings are open to the Ontario public. It remains to be seen how this ruling will affect the conduct of simultaneous parallel motions in multijurisdictional class actions in the future. Given conflicting results of decisions in Ontario, Québec and British Columbia (as we have previously discussed here), guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada may be necessary.

See this Osler Update for more detailed analysis.