April 23, 2019
In Kimberley Marie Pfaff v. Canada Bread Company, Ltd. (Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench), Ken McEwan, K.C. and Eileen Patel represented a consortium of law firms seeking to advance a national class proceeding in relation to an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread products. They successfully supported an application to stay a competing action in Alberta commenced by the Merchant Law Group, which obviated the need for a hearing on carriage. McEwan Partners is also counsel to the same consortium of law forms on the appeal of a decision in British Columbia to award carriage of the same claims to a competing, British Columbia-only action. The appeal raises issues of comity, judicial efficiency, and the management of overlapping multijurisdictional class proceedings.