M. Robb

The offender pleaded guilty to trafficking fentanyl and criminal negligence causing death after selling cocaine laced with fentanyl to the victim, who subsequently died of an overdose.

The offender admitted to wilful blindness, having told the victim the drugs were a 'real head-spinner'.

The court rejected a suspended sentence, emphasizing denunciation and deterrence for fentanyl trafficking, and sentenced the offender to three years' imprisonment.

The accused was arrested without a warrant for possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking based on information provided by a confidential informant.

Following her arrest, she handed over methamphetamine to police.

The accused brought a Charter application to exclude the evidence, arguing the arrest lacked reasonable and probable grounds.

The court dismissed the application, finding the informant's tip was sufficiently reliable and detailed to provide reasonable and probable grounds for the arrest.

The court further held that even if the arrest was unlawful, the evidence would not be excluded under section 24(2) of the Charter.

The accused, jointly charged with unlawful confinement and aggravated assault, brought applications to sever counts on the indictment.

One accused was additionally charged with attempted murder and several counts of possession of controlled substances for the purpose of trafficking.

The accused argued that trying the drug charges together with the violent offences would cause severe prejudice and propensity reasoning.

The court dismissed the applications, finding that the drug charges provided the context and motive for the violent offences, as the victim was a competing drug dealer.

The court held that the interests of justice favoured a single trial, and any potential prejudice could be addressed through proper jury instructions.

The defendants brought a motion to amend the class definition in an Ontario securities class action to exclude persons who would be bound by a pending settlement in parallel U.S. class proceedings.

The U.S. settlement was conditional on the Ontario court granting this amendment.

The court applied the Currie factors and recognized the U.S. court's judgment approving the settlement, finding that the U.S. court had a real and substantial connection to the claims, and that the absent class members were accorded procedural fairness and adequate representation.

The court further determined that amending the class was the preferable procedure, as it would facilitate access to justice for the overlapping class members without unfairly prejudicing the remaining class members.

The motion was granted and the class definition was amended.

In a proposed class action alleging a price‑fixing conspiracy in the optical disc drive (ODD) market contrary to common law and s. 45 of the Competition Act, the plaintiff sought leave to amend the claim to add eighteen additional corporate defendants.

The defendants opposed the amendment on the basis that limitation periods under the Limitations Act and s. 36(4) of the Competition Act had expired.

The court held that at the pleadings amendment stage it was inappropriate to make definitive findings on discoverability or the expiry of limitation periods where the evidentiary record was incomplete.

Although the plaintiff’s evidence regarding due diligence was thin, the court concluded it would be unfair to refuse the amendment solely on the deficient record.

The motion was adjourned to permit the plaintiff to file additional evidence addressing discoverability and diligence.

In a securities class proceeding, the plaintiffs sought costs following successful motions in which they opposed summary judgment and obtained nunc pro tunc relief permitting pursuit of a statutory claim despite the expiry of a limitation period under the Securities Act.

The defendants argued that no costs should be awarded due to alleged delay by the plaintiffs, the alleged unnecessary nature of the cross‑motion, and the claim that the plaintiffs succeeded on grounds not advanced by their counsel.

The court rejected these arguments, finding no delay attributable to the plaintiffs and confirming that the cross‑motion seeking nunc pro tunc relief was appropriate.

The court held that the plaintiffs succeeded on their arguments regarding the court’s nunc pro tunc authority and the interpretation of the Court of Appeal’s Timminco decision.

Applying the general rule that costs follow the event, the court awarded the plaintiffs their claimed partial indemnity costs.

The defendants moved for summary judgment to dismiss the plaintiffs' statutory claims for secondary market misrepresentation under the Securities Act, arguing the claims were statute-barred by the three-year limitation period in s. 138.14.

The plaintiffs had brought a motion for leave to assert the statutory claims within the limitation period, but the limitation period expired while the court's decision on the leave motion was under reserve.

The court held that it had inherent jurisdiction and authority under the Rules of Civil Procedure to grant the leave order nunc pro tunc (retroactively) to the date the leave motion was argued, applying the actus curiae maxim to prevent injustice caused by the court's delay.

The defendants' motion for summary judgment was dismissed, and the plaintiffs were permitted to amend their statement of claim effective the date the leave motion concluded.

In a class proceeding, the court determined costs arising from motions concerning the approval of the form, content, and timing of a certification notice and a motion by a class member to participate.

The participating class member was granted leave under s. 14 of the Class Proceedings Act to participate in the notice motion.

Although the plaintiffs succeeded on the timing of notice and the participating class member succeeded on participation, neither side was fully successful regarding the notice content, particularly concerning references to related U.S. proceedings.

The court held that class members who actively participate may be exposed to costs under s. 14(2), notwithstanding the protection for passive class members under s. 31.

However, given the novelty of issues concerning overlapping global class members and parallel U.S. proceedings, the court declined to award costs to any party.

The plaintiffs in an Ontario securities class action moved for approval of the notice of certification.

The lead plaintiff in parallel U.S. proceedings, who was also a member of the Ontario global class, moved to participate in the motion, arguing that the notice should be delayed and should include detailed information about the U.S. proceedings.

The court granted the U.S. plaintiff standing to participate but held that the notice of certification should be issued promptly to protect class members' litigation autonomy.

The court determined that the notice should inform class members of the existence of the U.S. proceedings but should not include detailed or comparative information, as that would be confusing and unnecessary at this stage.