A Canadian Press story about a new class action stemming from the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto posits that the suit may be the last to be filed, since the two-year basic limitation period has now expired.
The class of seven in this latest action includes women who allege they were profiled by police, in part because they had “hairy legs.” The claim, which will be filed today, is for $1.4 million.
This figure pales in comparison to the long-running Sherry Good class action, headed by lawyers Eric Gillespie and Murray Klippenstein. They’re claiming $35 million in general damages, $20 million in aggravated and special damages and $20 million in punitive and exemplary damages. A website about the class action describes Good as one of the people who were surrounded by police at Queen and Spadina on the last day of the summit, in the now-infamous “kettling” incident. The suit, however, aims to include in its class “most people who were arrested that weekend, or ‘kettled,’ or who were held in the G20 detention centre on Eastern Avenue.”
Another, even larger class action was stayed last year due to its similarity to the Good suit.
An article in the winter 2010 issue of Precedent highlights several of the key legal responses to the events of the G20 Summit, which included the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. The summit itself was also for its massive expense and significant disruption of daily life in downtown Toronto — an experience we detailed in advance of the summit with a blog post and map about how G20 security would affect the buildings that house Toronto’s largest law firms.
Photo by James D. Schwartz