Class action on birth alerts gets green light against Ontario, but faces hurdles
CBC spoke to Tina Yang about the certification of a class action against the government of Ontario and Ontario children’s aid societies regarding their establishment and operation of a system known as “Birth Alerts”. A birth alert was a notification made by a child welfare agency to hospitals about pregnant people they deemed “high-risk.” An alert would often be issued based on speculative concerns and, because a hospital was required to alert welfare authorities when the subject of the alert sought medical care or came to deliver the baby, commonly resulted in apprehension of the infant at birth, causing irreparable psychological harm to the parents and the child.
Ontario stopped the practice in 2020, recognizing that the alerts disproportionately affected Indigenous and racialized mothers. The class action alleges that the Government of Ontario was negligent in failing to put a stop to it decades earlier, causing substantial harm to Ontario families.
The class action was certified in May, but only against the Government of Ontario and not against the children’s aid societies who issue the alerts. The plaintiffs are appealing the court’s decision not to certify the claim against the children’s aid societies.
CBC spoke to Tina Yang about the case.
This week, co-counsel for the plaintiffs Tina Yang said her team is planning to appeal the judge’s decision to not certify the action against the children’s aid societies.
“It’s a strong ruling with regard to Ontario … [but] obviously, disappointment with regard to the denial of certification against the children’s aid societies,” said Yang, with Goldblatt Partners LLP, in reaction to the decision.
Yang said the class action in Ontario is the first among similar claims in B.C., Saskatchewan and Manitoba to reach certification.
“It’s such an important cause to be litigated,” said Yang. “It’s not just compensation. It’s about recognition of what happened, vindication of those rights … and that hopefully … there’s a commitment to making sure that something like this never happens again.”
…
Yang wants to stress that the denial [to certify the children’s aid societies] “was not a rejection of the validity” of most of the plaintiffs’ claims, “but rather a reflection of the technical class-action rules.”
“We still believe strongly in this case,” she said.
Yang added her team is exploring options suggested by the judge, such as bringing a class-action against individual children’s aid societies, though that would mean finding dozens of additional plaintiffs.