B. Finlay

The defendant Attorney General of Canada brought a motion to strike the plaintiffs' statement of claim, which sought $1.5 billion in damages for negligence, misfeasance in public office, breach of aboriginal rights, and breach of fiduciary duty.

The claims arose from the Crown's alleged forced incorporation of the plaintiffs' tobacco manufacturing partnership and its failure to enforce anti-contraband initiatives on the reserve.

The court dismissed the motion to strike, finding that it was not plain and obvious that the claims would fail, given the evolving nature of aboriginal law and the specific interactions pleaded.

The court granted the plaintiffs leave to amend their pleading to add all partners as plaintiffs and to provide further material facts for the aboriginal rights claim.

The defendants sought leave to appeal orders granting the plaintiff leave under s. 138.8 of the Ontario Securities Act to pursue statutory misrepresentation claims and certifying the proceeding as a securities class action.

The proposed appeal challenged, among other issues, the treatment of U.S. SEC disclosure documents as potential “core documents” and the certification of a global shareholder class alongside a negligent misrepresentation claim.

The court held that the motions judge applied the correct “reasonable possibility of success” standard for statutory leave and was entitled to defer final determinations about the core/non-core document classification to trial.

The court also found no misapplication of appellate authority concerning certification of parallel statutory and common law claims.

As there was no good reason to doubt the correctness of the orders, leave to appeal was refused.