The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a British Columbia-led effort to launch a multi-province class action lawsuit against opioid manufacturers can proceed.Justices dismissed the appeal from defendants, who had argued that the procedural mechanism used to file the suit on behalf of other provinces, Section 11 of BC's Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, was unconstitutional.According to the Supreme Court, the majority of those on the bench found that "section 11 of the ORA is within the authority of the province of British Columbia," as it, "does not deal with substantive rights, it is meaningfully connected to the province of British Columbia, and it respects the legislative sovereignty of other governments in Canada."Led by Justice Karakatsanis, they argued that, "it is properly classified under section 92(14) of the Constitution Act, 1867, which grants the provinces the authority to legislate in relation to the administration of justice in the province," and that Section 11 "presumptively authorizes British Columbia to act as a representative plaintiff on behalf of a class of other governments in Canada who choose to participate in this class proceeding."The defendants' appeal had previously been rejected by the Supreme Court of BC and the Court of Appeal.BC first brought the class action suit against pharmaceutical companies in 2018, acting as a representative plaintiff on behalf of Canadian governments and agencies at the provincial, territorial, and federal level that "paid healthcare, pharmaceutical and treatment costs related to opioids."While all of Canada has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, BC has fared among the worst. Since 2016, over 21,000 people have lost their lives due to overdoses in the province.More to come...
