It should be obvious by now that this is just an abuse of the Court system.
Back in December, a Toronto lawsuit involving nearly 500 health care workers across Ontario was struck by a Superior Court Judge. The Statement of Claim was extremely poorly written, and didn’t plead any of the necessary facts for any Plaintiff, or any Charter breach. It did, however, go off on many unrelated tangents. This trainwreck came from “Mr. Bad Beyond Argument” himself, Rocco Galati.
Instead of the 473 Plaintiffs outlining their cases and circumstances, the Defendants had to do it. They ended up introducing a 13,000 page, 23 volume Motion Record with their employment documents. That’s right, the Defendants had to provide the background information on the Parties.
The Claim was also littered with subjects that a Civil Court had no ability to hear.
It included:
- Allegations of criminal conduct
- Allegations of crimes against humanity
- Allegations of eugenics (which would be criminal)
- Allegations of violations of Nuremberg Code
- Allegations of violations of the Helsinki Declaration
Rather than simply pleading facts, the Statement of Claim tried arguing expert evidence, and caselaw, neither of which is appropriate at this stage. The purpose is to lay out the “who, what, where, when, how” of events, not make legal submissions. A competent lawyer would know this, but then, Galati isn’t a competent lawyer.
Beyond that, there was the issue of jurisdiction. The vast majority of Plaintiffs were unionized, and subject to various collective bargaining agreements. This wasn’t something that could be fixed simply by advancing a better quality pleading, unless brand new arguments were made, such as here.
See parts 1, 2 and 3 for background information.
As an aside, the CSASPP defamation suit had gotten a mention in the Motion hearing, and Justice Chalmers’ comments about the Vaccine Choice Canada and Action4Canada cases were referenced. That Appeal should be interesting.
Justice Koehnen further ordered $190,000 in costs against the Plaintiffs, which worked out to less than $500 per Plaintiff. He ended up chewing out the Galati for “recycling” his old pleadings. Unfortunately, it’s still the clients who are stuck with the Bill. No matter how often lawyers act in frivolous and vexatious ways, they typically aren’t personally held responsible.
[53] I have the distinct impression from reading the Amended Claim as a whole that its object is not to vindicate the employment rights of the plaintiffs so much as it is to mount a political crusade in which the court will be used as a grandstand to conduct an inquiry into the effectiveness of vaccines and the effectiveness of government measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic by opponents of those measures.
[154] …. If this was not clear from the outset, it should have become clear by the time the British Columbia Supreme Court, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the Federal Court, and the Federal Court of Appeal struck out similarly drafted statements of claim prepared by the same lawyer. While the interests of a free and democratic society may warrant leeway with respect to the pursuit of unconventional claims at the outset, when such claims continue to be pursued after being struck out by four courts, they amount to an abuse of public resources.
[157] …. Plaintiffs’ counsel is a sole practitioner with a different cost structure than that of counsel for the Non-Governmental Defendants and that this is the fifth time that Plaintiffs’ counsel has litigated a motion to strike with respect to a claim of this nature. I expect having done this four times before, that there were significant cost efficiencies for Plaintiffs’ counsel, especially with respect to the factum.
-Justice Koehnen, Ontario Superior Court Judge
In an unsurprising twist, the ruling has been appealed. The Notice itself is nothing new, and appears to be cut-and-pasted from other (failed) Appeals.
The Notice takes issue with the fact that the Judge found that the Court had no jurisdiction over the bulk of the Plaintiffs, even the arbitration requirement. However, Rule 21.01 (1) and (3) of Civil Procedure make it clear that it’s grounds for bringing a challenge.
The Notice takes issue with the Court not taking “facts pleaded as true”. However, counsel doesn’t know how to draft a Statement of Claim, nor does he know what’s supposed to be in one. Rehashing failed conspiracy theories hasn’t sat too well either.
The Notice takes issue with the $190,000 in costs awarded. However, costs are a discretionary matter, and almost impossible to overturn. And again, it involved 473 Plaintiffs, from all over the Province.
It’s unclear if the $190,000 in costs has actually been paid. If not, the Defendants can always seek an Order for Security for Costs prior to the hearing. Should it be granted, it would force Plaintiffs/Appellants to pay up ahead of time.
Now, if Adelberg (over 600 Plaintiffs) is any indication, a retainer of more than $600,000 isn’t enough. Another $600,000 was sought to appeal that “bad beyond argument” decision. That’s over $1.2 million for a lawsuit that never proceeded past the Statement of Claim. One has to assume that the Dorceus Plaintiffs are also being asked to pay more.
Similarly, although Katanik (100 Plaintiffs) was ultimately dropped, the $150,000 retainer wasn’t enough, and another $450,000 was demanded.
Action4Canada and Vaccine Choice Canada routinely hit up donors for more money.
With this in mind, it’s fair to assume that the Dorceus Plaintiffs/Appellants are also being asked to pay more. And again, when their Appeal crashes, it’s not counsel who has to pay costs.
DORCEUS DOCUMENTS:
(1) Grifters Main Page
(2) https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/regu/rro-1990-reg-194/latest
(3) https://www.ontario.ca/page/search-court-cases-online
(4) Dorceus Statement Of Claim
(5) Dorceus Amended Statement Of Claim
(6) Dorceus Defendant Moving Party Factum SJM Government
(7) Dorceus Defendant Moving Party Factum SJM Hospitals
(8) Dorceus Plaintiff Responding Factum SJM
(9) Dorceus Notice Of Appeal
(10) https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2024/2024onsc7087/2024onsc7087.html
PREVIOUS DECISIONS:
(1) https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2022/2022bcsc1507/2022bcsc1507.html
(2) https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcca/doc/2024/2024bcca59/2024bcca59.html
(3) https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fct/doc/2023/2023fc252/2023fc252.html
(4) https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fca/doc/2024/2024fca106/2024fca106.html