The Law Foundation of Ontario’s Access to Justice Fund has received additional cy-près awards – funding that will be used across the country to advance the ideal of a truly accessible justice system. The Access to Justice Fund, the first national fund of its kind, was originally created to distribute a cy-près award in Cassano v. TD Bank. It has now received a total of 7 cy-près awards.
Courts make cy-près awards when it’s not practical to distribute all the proceeds of a class action to individual plaintiffs. The Foundation has used the Access to Justice Fund to support more than 100 new initiatives across Canada. These grants, made after consultation with other provincial law foundations, are helping people who are:
- Members of linguistic minorities;
- rural residents;
- Aboriginal;
- self-represented litigants;
- experiencing family violence;
- pursuing consumer rights.
The following class actions have generated cy-près awards received by the Access to Justice Fund:
- Cassano v. Toronto Dominion Bank, 2009 CanLII 35732 (ON S.C.)
- Skopit v. BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., 2010 ONSC 6039
- Smith Estate v. National Money Mart, 2010 ONSC 1334 (CanLII)
- Wein v. Rogers Cable Communications Inc., 2011 ONSC 7290 (CanLII)
- Markson v. MNBA, 2012 ONSC 5891
- Carom v. Bre-X Minerals Ltd., 2014 ONSC 2507
- Krajewski v. TNOW Entertainment Group (February 2014)
The Foundation looks forward to continuing to promote access to justice through this fund and will share information as funding directions are developed. All cy-près awards are distributed in strict compliance with their terms and conditions.
