Proposed $10M Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Ontario University

A large-scale class action lawsuit has just been filed against Ontario educational institution Fanshawe College.

On Wednesday morning, lawyers from the Toronto law firm Eric K. Gillespie Professional Corporation announced that the university, which has multiple campuses in Ontario, and its board of directors are being sued for $10 million.

The class action has been filed in the Supreme Court and seeks damages on behalf of hundreds of students (including former, current and international students) who have been enrolled in the Paralegal Program at Fanshawe College since 2020.

There is “widespread negligence, extensive negligence and violations of the Ontario Consumer Protection Act.”

“It appears the college has repeatedly failed to meet the requirements of the Law Society Ontario (‘LSO’), leaving students unprepared for licensing examinations and legal practice,” a press release said.

“The claim describes, among other things, repeated failures to report major changes to the program, annual statements, failure to meet academic and internship requirements, failure to meet minimum teaching hours, failure to meet teacher qualification requirements, and failure to teach, adequately or at all, more than 300 required competencies.”

“Even after an audit by the LSO in 2018 revealed many of these shortcomings, the board and management failed to address them,” the report said.

One of the proposed representative claimants is Isabel Koestner.

“As students, we were told that the instructors were well qualified. We were told that they had a Masters certificate. It turned out that these were ‘online courses’ of a few weeks. We were told that they had experience. For example, it turned out that they were recent graduates themselves and that their main experience was teaching yoga,” she said.

Koestner added that the class was told that more than 75 percent of graduates were employed within six months.

Tony Trus, another proposed representative plaintiff, said that thanks to the use of AI, it appears the real number “may have been as low as 4 percent.”

“This is a national problem that has been raised by governments and the public for quite some time,” said proposed class counsel Eric Gillespie.

“Given how vulnerable they are, the claim also raises specific concerns about Fanshawe College’s treatment of international students. Our clients believe it is time to address this. Fanshawe College unfortunately appears to be a prime example of students not being treated fairly,” he concluded.

The next step for the claim is the move towards certification.

“We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings or issues,” a Fanshawe College spokesperson told us. “We are very proud of our track record of providing high-quality education and student experiences to students around the world.”

If you have any questions about the lawsuit, please contact Koestner, Trus or Gillespie at [email protected].

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