Parallel class actions filed in multiple provinces are a familiar feature of Canadian class action practice, long understood to strain one of the central purposes of class proceedings – judicial economy. To address this concern, several provinces have amended their class proceedings legislation based on recommendations from the Uniform Law Conference of Canada to provide additional tools for addressing parallel multi-jurisdictional class actions. Ontario did so in 2020 through amendments made to the Class Proceedings Act, 1992 (CPA), which included the addition of sections 5(6)-5(8) – provisions that mirror similar provisions related to multijurisdictional class actions already in place in the class proceedings legislation of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
More than five years after these provisions were implemented, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, in Yee v. Telus International (Cda) Inc., 2026 ONSC 3165 (Yee), has finally interpreted and applied them. In doing so, the Court has provided valuable guidance for counsel on the factors to be considered where a stay of an Ontario class proceeding is sought on the basis of overlapping parallel class actions.