This article explores the potential of environmental class actions and undertakes the first statistical and qualitative comparison of environmental class actions in Quebec and English Canada. Environmental torts often affect large numbers of people, but their cost and complexity render individual actions non-viable. Facilitating the use of environmental class actions can help obtain compensation for affected individuals while deterring future environmental harm. The author finds there have been over two-and-a-half times as many environmental class actions in Quebec than in the rest of Canada combined. In addition, Quebec courts have been more willing to hear personal injury claims in the context of environmental class actions. The author suggests that the differences observed between Quebec and English Canada may be attributed to divergent precedents and distinct judicial approaches to preferable procedure, general causation, and the creation of subgroups among class members. By learning from the Quebecois approach, English Canadian provinces may better facilitate the use of class actions in environmental contexts.
Christie Kneteman (Wed,) studied this question.