We are currently in the Disclosure Stage of this class action.

At this stage, we are exchanging documents that are relevant to the privacy breach with the other parties, namely, the North Bay Regional Health Centre and Melissa McLellan.

We have reviewed the documents provided by the Hospital thus far and have requested further documents from the Hospital. We are currently waiting for the Hospital to provide us with information regarding the specific details of the privacy breaches as they relate to each individual class member.

We are also working with the Case Management Judge so that we can schedule examinations of a representative of the Hospital and Ms. McLellan. The representative plaintiffs will also be examined on behalf of all class members.

As a class member, you do not need to worry about providing us with any documentation or being examined.

We are hopeful that both the disclosure of all relevant documentation and the examinations of the relevant parties will be completed by the end of this year. Following these steps, the next major step in the process will be a hearing before the Case Management Judge.

Importantly, please be aware that you do not need to do anything at this stage. You will not be asked for any documentation and you will not need to attend court or be examined.

If you have any questions regarding the above update or anything else about the class action, please contact us via telephone at 705-478-8200 or email us at [email protected].

Since our previous update of September 6, 2019, our office and counsel for the Hospital participated in a case conference with the Case Management Judge.

As a result of this case conference, it has become clear that prior to the examinations of representatives being conducted, motions to the court have to be brought to obtain additional documentary evidence from other parties and the Hospital. These motions have been scheduled with the court, with the first motion scheduled in early 2020 and the second motion scheduled for the summer of 2020. Once the motions have been heard and
the court has decided, the examinations of the Hospital representative, Ms. McLellan and the representative plaintiffs will occur.

This represents a slight delay in the completion of the Disclosure Stage, however, it is important that we have all the relevant documentation available to proceed forward through the Examinations for Discovery.

Importantly, as a class member, you are still not required to do anything at this time.

If you have any questions regarding the above update or anything else about the class action, please contact us via telephone at 705-478-8200 or email us at [email protected].

As you are likely aware, COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that has been spreading across Canada and around the world, has been declared a global pandemic. To protect the health and safety of all court users and to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the Superior Court of Justice suspended all regular operations effective Tuesday, March 17, 2020, until further notice. As such, all matters that were scheduled to be heard by the courts have been adjourned to be rescheduled at some date in the future.

What this means for this class action is that the motions that were scheduled with the court, one set for early 2020 and one set for the summer of 2020, have been postponed until the courts reopen and new dates can be scheduled. Unfortunately, we cannot speak to when that time will be exactly.

Moving forward, we will provide a further update, when we are able to, with respect to the rescheduling of our motions with the court.