Court expected to rule on students' class action lawsuit

Ruling expected this morning

TORONTO - The Honourable Justice Joan L. Lax of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is expected to issue her ruling tomorrow on whether to allow the court to hear a $200 million class action lawsuit against the province's 24 community colleges. This unprecedented case was launched on behalf of Ontario's college students by two college students, Andy Hassum and Dan Roffey. The class action is seeking to recover $200 million in ancillary fees paid by Ontario's college students, fees that are prohibited by a Binding Policy Directive issued by the Ontario Government.

In an effort to prevent the court from proceeding to consider the underlying merits of the students' case, the defendant colleges brought a motion seeking to have the case thrown out. The colleges' position was that the government's "binding policy directive" is a kind of guideline and not a "law," and therefore does not entitle any students to sue to recover fees collected in violation of the directive. The colleges did not deny the existence of the Binding Policy Directive or their collection of the prohibited fees. However, they claimed that only the government could enforce the Directive, and not the students from whom the fees were actually collected.

On January 8, 2008 a hearing was held to consider the defendant's motion to strike the case. After two and a half months of deliberation, Justice Lax is now expected to issue her ruling.

The representative plaintiffs and their legal counsel, and representatives of the Canadian Federation of Students, will be available for comment immediately following the release of the ruling.

An electronic copy of the ruling, along with a media release and background documents, will be posted on the website: http://www.StopUnfairFees.ca/.

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The Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario unites more than 300,000 college and university students across the province from more than 35 students' unions.