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34 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m Koskie Minsky LLP in Toronto, McKiggan says the "thought was keep it as simple as possible. Keep the class narrow: the military. Keep the claims narrow: breach of fiduciary duty and systemic negligence." McKiggan learned through Kinsman, whom he was going to use as an expert witness, that Elliott was about to file parallel actions. After some negotiations, they agreed to roll the three suits into one, filing in the Federal Court and cov- ering the broader class of the military, civil service and RCMP. The Federal Court route came from lessons learned the hard way of dealing with multiple jurisdictions across the country — for McKiggan in the Indian residential school class actions and for Elliott in the same-sex marriage cases. The combined class action, Ross, Roy and Satalic v. Her Majesty the Queen, was filed March 13, 2017 in Montreal. No ordinary class action D espite the breadth of the suit, the government came back swiftly with an offer to begin settlement discussions. "In this case, the stars aligned early," says Pless. "I think probably the biggest difference with this case was that the government was already very knowledgeable about the history and the underlying issues. . . . And then the government also, I think, had a general sense of how they wanted to address these kinds of issues with the LGBT community." Considering the "Just Society Report" and interactions with the community, he says, the government was already looking to right historical wrongs including amending the Criminal Code and expunging old convictions. In addi- tion, the feds had set up a new LGBTQ2 Secretariat within the Privy Council and MP Randy Boissonnault was appointed as a special adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on LGBTQ issues, all in parallel with work on the formal apology for the state's historical discrimination. Negotiations still took a year, but monthly meetings and a willingness on both sides meant an agreement in prin- ciple was in place when Trudeau made his apology in the House of Commons on Nov. 28, 2017. "The way in which the negotiations unfolded was very positive," says Pless. "It really is a model of how these kinds of negotiations can occur. . . . The approach was not an adversarial approach, it was a genuinely constructive dialogue." Plaintiffs' counsel are also positive. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone who sat around that table. They were extremely sensitive to the issues that class members were facing," says Boc- tor. "It did take almost a year to come to an agreement and I think that indicates that it wasn't always smooth sailing." She describes Mohr and Pless as "probably two of the best ones I've encountered in my career." Elliott calls the negotiations "collegial but tough." After the PM made his tearful apology, final negotiations began. "That turned out to be a lot more complicated than expect- ed. The devil's in the details and there was a lot of work to do on the details," says Master the law. Canada's leading law school offers a graduate degree in four unique streams: Business Law Canadian Law in a Global Context Innovation, Law and Technology Law of Leadership Apply today. Visit gpllm.law.utoronto.ca Questions? gpllm@utoronto.ca ntitled-6 1 2018-05-25 11:45 AM

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