Class Proceedings

Class proceedings may be brought in the Federal Court in accordance with Part 5.1 of the Federal Courts Rules. The regime provides for representative plaintiffs or applicants, certification as a class proceeding, notice to class members, participation by class members, opting out and exclusion by class members, appeals, and costs.

Class proceedings in the Federal Court are restricted to the areas of law over which the Federal Court has jurisdiction (Federal Courts Act, s 50.1).

Examples of cases certified as class proceedings in the Federal Court include:

  • Manuge v Canada, 2008 FC 624, Buote Estate v Canada, 2014 FC 773, and Toth v Canada, 2019 FC 125: allegation of improper off-setting of military and police veterans’ long-term disability benefits under the Pension Act.
  • McCrea v Canada (Attorney General), 2015 FC 592: allegation that parents who became ill were improperly denied sickness benefits under the Employment Insurance Act because they had already received parental benefits.
  • Gottfriedson v Canada, 2015 FC 706, McLean v Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FC 642 and Riddle v Canada, 2018 FC 641: allegations of mistreatment of Indigenous children who attended Indian Residential Schools and Indian Day Schools, or who were taken from their families and placed with non-Indigenous caregivers.
  • Merlo v Canada, 2017 FC 51 and Heyder v Canada (Attorney General), 2019 FC 1477: allegations that the Government of Canada negligently permitted workplace environments that were conducive to sexual misconduct and discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Department of National Defence.
  • Lin v Airbnb, Inc, 2019 FC 1563: alleged violations of s 54 of the Competition Act resulting from the pricing of accommodation booked using a digital marketplace that connects hosts with guests.

Relevant Statutes

Date modified: 2020-08-21

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