Introduction

• Author: Harvey T. Strosberg
• Pages: 1-2

1

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to 2022. Issue 17.2 of the Canadian Class Action Review covers

a range of relevant class action topics in Canada.

Ms. Marie Ong is the winner of the 2020 Harvey T. Strosberg Com-

petition. In her paper, Ong examines the concept of honorarium awards

for representative plaintif‌fs. She argues that lawyers and plaintif‌fs cannot

predict whether a judge will award an honorarium and in what amount.

Ong reviews the legal landscape and calls for clarity.

The authors Jacob Medvedev, Randy C Sutton, and Linda Fuerst’s

essay “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: ‘Some Basis in Fact’ and the

Certif‌ication of Common Issues” examines the certif‌ication criterion

requiring that the plaintif‌f(s) establish “some basis in fact” regarding

common issues. The authors start with the “some basis in fact” test f‌irst

discussed by the Supreme Court of Canada in Hollick v Toronto (City),

2001 SCC 68. The authors postulate that the “some basis in fact” has been

applied unevenly, sometimes treated as a one-step analysis and some-

times as a two-step analysis. The authors examine the purpose of the

test and the way “Canadian courts have struggled to reconcile conf‌lict-

ing authorities regarding plaintif‌fs’ evidentiary burden at certif‌ication in

respect of common issues.”

The COVID pandemic has caused much discussion about potential

COVID class actions. The Canadian Class Action Review presents two

articles exploring dif‌ferent areas in which COVID class actions may arise.

The author Logan MacLeod examines the extent to which a class action

would be viable in British Columbia following COVID vaccinations. Mac-

Leod reviews that data concerned adverse reactions to the vaccinations

and prognosticates how a class action would fare in the British Columbia

courts.

The author Spencer Nestico-Samianiw’s article considers the viability

of a COVID class action asserting that Canadian governments breached

the Charter by imposing certain restrictions, intended to slow the spread

of the virus, on the population and on businesses. Nestico-Samianiw

examines two proposed actions, one in Newfoundland and Labrador and

the other in British Columbia.