Experience Class Actions GG v Ontario

GG v Ontario

June 20, 2025

Charter of Rights / Privacy Law / Misfeasance Class Action

What this class action is about

Goldblatt Partners LLP and Sotos LLP are counsel in a proposed class action against the Government of Ontario (Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services) and all of the provincial Children’s Aid Societies, regarding their establishment and operation of a system known as “Birth Alerts” (sometimes also called “birth notifications” or “hospital alerts”).

On July 14, 2020, the Ministry issued a policy directive to the CASs requiring that the practice of issuing Birth Alerts be stopped by October 15, 2020. This directive came after the Report on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls identified the practice as unconstitutional, and disproportionately affecting Indigenous people.

The action alleges that issuing Birth Alerts was unlawful. Specifically, the action alleges that the CASs:

1. breached the Birth Parent Class Members’ fundamental constitutional rights, including their right to liberty and security of the person;
2. breached the Birth Parent Class Members’ quasi-constitutional right to privacy regarding intensely personal matters of medical care and childbirth; and
3. exceeded their child protection mandate and legal jurisdiction by issuing Birth Alerts against the Birth Parent Class Members prior to the birth of a child.

The action also alleges that the Government of Ontario was negligent in failing to put a stop to the use of Birth Alerts for decades, causing substantial harm to Ontario families.

Further, the action alleges that the use of Birth Alerts was grounded in discriminatory assumptions regarding which individuals are likely to be neglectful, abusive, or incapable parents—particularly Indigenous, racialized, and/or disabled birth parents, who were disproportionately the subjects of Birth Alerts—and that this was a violation of the Subclass Members’ constitutional right to equality.

Read the Statement of Claim here.

The proposed class consists of:

All persons who were, while pregnant, the subject of a Birth Alert issued in Ontario, and who were 18 years of age or older at the time that the Birth Alert was issued (the “Birth Parent Class” or “Birth Parent Class Members”); and

All dependents of members of the Birth Parent Class, as defined by s. 61 of the Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3 (the “Family Class” or “Family Class Members”).

Including a subclass of:

All Indigenous, racialized, and/or disabled Birth Parent Class Members (the “Subclass” or “Subclass Members”).

Updates

June 20, 2025 – Plaintiffs to seek appeal

The plaintiffs will seek to appeal the Ontario Court of Justice’s decision not to certify the class action against the Children’s Aid societies.

Read a CBC news story about the case here.  See Tina Yang discuss the case here.

May 21, 2025 – Certification Motion decision released

The motion for certification of the action as a class proceeding was heard by Justice Morgan on April 2-4, 2025. He released his decision on May 21, 2025, granting certification against the Government of Ontario, but denying certification against the Children’s Aid Societies. You can read the decision here.

The plaintiffs are currently considering next steps. We will provide a further update shortly.