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INTRODUCTION
This latest issue of The Canadian Class Action Review comes at a time of
great social uncertainly, when Canadians are facing huge and unexpected
dangers and challenges. This issue covers a range of topics, from employee
rights to data breaches to third party funding, carefully looking at the
ways that class actions can best serve the people.
Pierre-Claude Lafond’s article sets the scene by examining the
role that class actions play in vulnerable communities. In a time when
large groups of people are facing extreme vulnerability, it is important
to remember the impact that class actions can have, both by providing
access to justice and by instigating legislative change. Lafond examines
some key cases that demonstrate how class actions serve the needs of vul-
nerable groups, focusing specifically on sexual assault and mistreatment
of sick or elderly people in hospitals and long-term care facilities — this
latter being a topic particularly relevant right now. It is a concise and
thoughtful piece that looks at the good that class actions can and have
brought to society.
Next, Nora Parker’s extremely contemporary essay addresses the
issue of employee rights in a modern world rife with new technology,
new business models, and boilerplate contracts. She approaches the issue
by examining a class action against the multi-national company Uber
for misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors rather than as
employees, denying them many basic worker rights. Parker explains how
Uber has set up a complicated and virtually inaccessible arbitration pro-
cess, rendering it almost impossible for the drivers to access justice, and
the role that class actions can and must play to support workers in that
and similar situations.
Though class actions are often compared to individual claims, Helene
Love takes a more unusual approach by examining them in relation to aggre-
gate claims before administrative tribunals. Love argues that in our current
legal system, administrative tribunals, despite being created to address the
