News —

What Waddell Phillips has been making the news for lately.

Events

June 9, 2020 – Margaret Waddell at Class Actions Advocacy Program —

On June 9, 2020, Margaret Waddell will co-chair the Advocates’ Society Program, Class Actions Advocacy.

News

February 28, 2020 – Cory Wanless, quoted in the Canadian Lawyer about Supreme Court of Canada case Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya —

A Canadian mining company that is a majority owner in a mine in Eritrea may be sued for alleged abuses that occurred in that country, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday. The Court’s ruling holds that corporations can be held liable in civil law for breaches of international law, and that the act of state doctrine is not a bar to the claim. The decision stands to have implications for Canadian companies with operation abroad, notably in the resources, technology and armaments sectors.

“It’s important, because there are a number of corporate accountability lawsuits that are proceeding in Canadian courts right now,” says Cory Wanless of Waddell Phillips PC in Toronto, who was lead counsel for the intervener International Human Rights Program of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law before the Supreme Court.

[A] “big takeaway” from this decision “is that the Supreme Court showed a real willingness to take seriously international human rights law,” Wanless adds, and “a real willingness to engage in these novel questions or how international human rights law should be applied against corporations for breaches of international law.”

Read the full article here.

News

December 19, 2019 – Class action launched against LifeLabs over privacy breach affecting 15 million Canadians —

TORONTO, Dec. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Waddell Phillips PC and Klein & Schonblum Associates have launched a national privacy breach class action against LifeLabs and associated companies on behalf of the estimated 15 million Canadians whose personal information, including highly sensitive health information, was compromised in a cyber attack. The cyber criminals demanded, and LifeLabs subsequently paid, an undisclosed amount as a ransom in an attempt to secure the data. The compromised information includes, but is not limited to, medical lab test results, health card numbers, names, addresses, emails, login information, passwords, and dates of birth.

LifeLabs is one of the largest medical testing companies in the world, providing diagnostic medical testing services, including specimen collection, laboratory testing, and reporting of results to patients and health practitioners, across Canada. Each year, LifeLabs performs over 112 million laboratory tests on Canadians.

It was not until December 17, 2019, almost two months after the attack occurred, that LifeLabs first made a public announcement about the attack and the subsequent privacy breach.

“Health care records, and in particular lab test results, are some of the most private and sensitive personal information a company can hold. Unauthorized access and use can be devastating,” said David Fogel, a lawyer with Klein & Schonblum Associates. “It is extremely distressing that not only did LifeLabs fail to protect the personal health information of its clients, but that it took them almost two months to tell the public about it.”

“The scale of the LifeLabs privacy breach is truly massive – it affects over three quarters of all Ontarians and British Columbians,” said Cory Wanless, a lawyer with Waddell Phillips. “Basically anyone in Ontario or BC who has gone for any form of medical testing over the past several years is affected.”

The class action team is being led by Margaret Waddell. Ms. Waddell, founding partner of Waddell Phillips, is recognized by multiple lawyer ranking agencies as a leader in plaintiff-side class actions, and has acted as class counsel on a number of prominent cases.

Further information regarding the proposed class action will be posted as it becomes available at www.waddellphillips.ca/class-actions/

Contacts:
Cory Wanless
Waddell Phillips PC
(647) 874-2555
cory@waddellphillips.ca
David Fogel
Klein & Schonblum Associates
(416) 480-0221
dfogel@ksalaw.com
News

Nov 7, 2019 – Waddell Phillips lawyer Cory Wanless quoted in the New York Times regarding an attack against mine workers at a Canadian gold mine in West Africa. —

“It is highly distressing that Semafo made the decision to protect its expat workers by flying them to its mines precisely because of past attacks on ground convoys, and yet continues to rely on exposed ground convoys for its local workers,” Mr. Wanless said. “To me, this reeks of a Canadian company valuing the lives of Canadian and other Western expats over the lives of Africans.”

Waddell Phillips continues to support the need for legal accountability of Canadian mining companies for human rights abuses and other harms that occur in other nations.

Read the full article here.

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