Background: Martin L'Anton filed a class action suit in British Columbia against Mackenzie Financial Corporation and InvestorCOM Inc. He named InvestorCOM Inc. as an additional defendant, which was not a party in a similar proceeding in Ontario. The Ontario proceeding did not include Quebec residents and lacked precise statutory causes of action for privacy breaches in various provinces.

Legal Arguments/Issues: Both defendants sought a stay of the B.C. action, claiming it was an abuse of process due to the parallel proceedings in Ontario. L'Anton applied for sequencing directions, including the requirement for responses to the Civil Claim and the assignment of a case management and trial judge. The court considered the propriety of parallel class actions, the risk of inconsistent decisions, waste of judicial resources, and forum shopping.

Held: Justice Kent denied the stay applications, ruling that the B.C. action was legitimate and not entirely duplicative of the Ontario action. The court found that the action was filed for legitimate reasons, including naming an additional critical defendant and addressing specific provincial privacy laws. The court ordered the defendants to deliver their responses to the Civil Claim within 60 days and requested judicial management for the case.

Costs/Damages Awarded: The court did not award specific costs or damages at this stage. Costs of the applications were to be determined in the cause, meaning they would be decided based on the outcome of the case.