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Louis Century

Louis Century

Partner

Biography

Louis Century loves litigating for all the right reasons. He is a tenacious advocate for his clients and a strong believer in pursuing social and economic justice in the courts.

First and foremost, Louis is an advocate for workers. He represents employees who have lost their jobs or faced discrimination in the workplace. He also represents large groups of employees seeking unpaid overtime and other compensation in class action lawsuits.

Louis frequently represents individuals seeking accountability for state misconduct. His diverse litigation practice includes Charter claims, class actions, judicial reviews and appeals, professional regulation, defamation claims and injunctions. Louis is on LawPRO’s Preferred Counsel List.

Louis is no stranger at the Supreme Court of Canada. He started his legal career as a law clerk for the Honourable Justice Richard Wagner and returned to the Court to represent the Canadian Labour Congress in a leading case on the rights of non-unionized federal employees.

Intellectual curiosity defines Louis and his practice. He has taught Foundations of Canadian Law to law students at the University of Toronto and regularly takes on cutting edge social issues in the courts. The following are some examples of Louis’ cases in different areas of law:

  • Employment Litigation – In Beaumont v. Beaumont, Louis obtained judgment on behalf of two employees following a one-week Superior Court trial. In addition to employment damages, the court awarded $150,000 in punitive damages, an exceptional amount for employment cases. Louis has also argued employment cases by way of summary judgment (Morrow v. Complex Services Inc.) and intervened in leading employment law appeals (Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.).
  • Employment Class Actions – Louis was a key member of the counsel team in Fresco v. CIBC, an unpaid overtime class action on behalf of 31,000 front-line bank employees. After 15 years of litigation, the Superior Court and Court of Appeal found CIBC liable for unpaid overtime, which led to a settlement for $153 million, the largest employment class action settlement in Canadian history. Louis was also counsel in Bozsik v. Livingston, an unpaid overtime class action that settled for $19 million.
  • State Accountability Class Actions – Louis is counsel in several ongoing class actions against the federal government, including Dennis v. Canada (a certified class action on behalf of Prairie farmers in relation to the privatization of the Canadian Wheat Board), Palmer v. Canada (a proposed class action alleging Charter violations on behalf of migrant agricultural workers), and Kaczor v. Canada (a proposed class action seeking Charter damages for discrimination on behalf of refugees from Designated Countries of Origin).
  • Charter Litigation – Louis also represents individuals in Charter claims against the government. Some of these cases are described in Louis’ peer-reviewed article “Miscarriages of Justice in Immigration Detention”, which Louis co-authored with Prof. Kent Roach of the University of Toronto. Louis is counsel for Mohamedou Ould Slahi in his lawsuit against Canada over his 14-year detention at Guantanamo Bay. Louis has also intervened in leading Charter appeals such as Frank v. Canada, in which the Supreme Court cited Louis’ arguments with approval in a case about the right to vote of Canadians living abroad.
  • Administrative Law and Judicial Reviews – Louis was counsel for the applicants in the landmark case Canadian Federation of Students v. Ontario, in which the Divisional Court and Court of Appeal quashed the Ford Government’s so-called ‘Student Choice Initiative’ on administrative law grounds. The case stifled the government’s attempt to require universities and colleges to prevent student unions from collecting student dues and preserved the democratic model of student union governance and dues collection in Ontario.
  • Injunctions – Louis routinely advises trade unions in picketing disputes and injunction proceedings. In EllisDon Residential Inc. v. Limen Group Const. (2019) Ltd., Louis successfully represented a construction trade union in resisting an injunction application by a large developer. Louis acted for public interest interveners in an injunction about a university’s refusal to collect student union dues (Ryerson Students’ Union v. Ryerson University) and an injunction about a pro-Palestine student encampment (University of Toronto v. Doe et al.).
  • Defamation – Louis has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in defamation proceedings. In Sikhs for Justice v. The MacDonald-Laurier Institute, Louis successfully defended his client in an anti-SLAPP motion. Earlier in his career, Louis was part of a team defending Greenpeace Canada in a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit brought by a large forestry company.
  • Professional Regulation – In Galati v. Greene, Louis represented the Law Society of Ontario in a successful motion to strike out a claim brought against the regulator by a licensee. Louis regularly acts for the federal College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants prosecuting licensees for misconduct such as fraud and illegal job-selling that exploits vulnerable immigrants (CICC v. Lankarani and CICC v. Benito). He also defends lawyers facing negligence lawsuits.

Since his call to the bar in 2014, Louis has been actively engaged in Toronto’s legal community. He has advocated for equity issues in the profession, serving on the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and publishing on issues such as a minimum wage for articling students (“The debate about a minimum wage for articling students is an embarrassment to the legal profession”) and the importance of diversity in the bar (“Disrupting unspoken notions about who ‘belongs’ at the Supreme Court”). Louis maintains a passion for the rights of refugees both in his legal practice and his volunteer work, and is proud to have spearheaded Goldblatt Partners’ sponsorship of a refugee family from Syria.

Louis has held the following volunteer roles and appointments:

  • Director, Pro Bono Ontario (2020 to present)
  • Co-Chair, Ontario Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee (2022-2024)
  • Member, Young Advocates’ Standing Committee (YASC), a division of The Advocates’ Society (2017-2022)
  • Advisory Board Member, Refugee Sponsorship Support Program in Toronto (2016-2020)
  • Co-Chair, Alumni Network Committee of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto (2016 to 2021)

Notable Cases

More Notable Cases