Telus wanted the AI lawsuit heard out west. An Ontario judge said no
A securities class action accusing Telus Digital of misleading investors about its artificial intelligence business can move ahead in Ontario, a judge has ruled.
Justice E.M. Morgan of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a bid by Telus International (Cda) Inc. and three former directors and officers to put the case on hold while a similar lawsuit plays out in British Columbia. The decision came down June 2, 2026.
The Ontario suit, filed January 28, 2025, claims the company - which traded on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges before Telus Corporation bought it out - omitted material facts about its developing AI products and services. The result, the plaintiff alleges, was that Telus Digital negligently reported its revenues, profit margins, and earnings per share starting February 9, 2023, when it released its audited 2022 financial statements. According to the claim, public corrections for those alleged misrepresentations were issued on May 9, 2024, and August 2, 2024.
The named plaintiff, Alberta resident Albert Yee, bought 14,400 subordinate voting shares during the class period and held them past the final correction. He says he lost more than $20,000.
The fight in front of Justice Morgan was not about whether those claims hold up. It was about geography. The defendants wanted the Ontario action stayed in favor of a parallel class action filed in British Columbia in December 2024. They argued, under a 2020 amendment to Ontario's class proceedings law aimed at duplicative or overlapping cases across provinces, that the national claims should be consolidated in one forum.
Justice Morgan did not buy it. He found the Ontario case had simply moved faster. The plaintiff had already served a full motion record, while the BC case was bogged down in a procedural fight - over the order its motions would be heard in - that is now under appeal.
The judge was also unimpressed by the claim that Ontario was an inconvenient venue. He noted the same Toronto lawyers represent the defendants in both provinces, and pointed out that Telus, by its own description, operates in more than 45 countries with annual revenue topping $200 billion. A litigant that size, he reasoned, would have little trouble coordinating cases across two Canadian cities.
For investors, the venue matters. A plaintiff's affiant pulled Bloomberg data showing the largest institutional shareholders during the class period were Ontario-based funds. Plaintiff's counsel argued those investors deserve the benefit of Ontario's Securities Act, and the ruling observes that litigating the case elsewhere would not fulfill the act's regulatory promise.
The judge called the motion one of first impression, noting no other had yet been decided under the 2020 rules meant to sort out competing class actions across provinces. He declined to treat duplication as an automatic reason to shut down one case, warning against what courts have called a "reverse auction," where a defendant shops for the friendlier, slower forum.
The motion was dismissed. Telus Digital and its former directors and officers now have until August 31, 2026, to file their responding record, a two-month extension. With that extra time, the judge ordered a follow-up case conference to settle the hearing date and timetable.
