Case information

None.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Civil procedure – Class actions – Abuse of process – Action commenced in Saskatchewan claiming that telecommunication providers improperly charged wireless telephone customers system access fees and misrepresented them as regulatory fees – Action in Saskatchewan was certified as class action on national opt-in basis – Similar class actions filed in other jurisdictions across Canada, including Alberta, but later stayed as abuses of process – Whether filing of multiple class actions constitutes abuse of process.

In 2004, an action was commenced in Saskatchewan by the Merchant Law Group (the “MLG”) under The Class Actions Act, SS 2001, c. C-12.01 (the “Frey/Chatfield action”), claiming that the respondent telecommunications providers had improperly been charging their wireless phone customers “system access fees” (“SAF”) each month. It was alleged that the respondents misrepresented that the SAF were regulatory fees that they were simply collecting and remitting to the government. It was further alleged that this illegal practice went on for several years affecting customers across Canada and resulted in the respondents receiving, collectively, hundreds of millions of dollars. Similar class actions were later brought by the MLG in eight other jurisdictions across Canada, including Alberta. In Alberta, Rooke A.C.J. held that the Alberta action was necessary, subject to some restrictions, in order to protect the rights and afford meaningful access to justice to Albertans. The Alberta Court of Appeal overturned that decision, finding that the existence of the Saskatchewan opt-in class was sufficient for that purpose, and stayed the Alberta action.