This class action arose from the spill of toxic effluents into Guyana’s main waterway, the Essequibo, when the effluent treatment plant of a gold mine burst.
The gold mine was located in Guyana. The owner was Omai Gold Mines Ltd of Guyana but the majority shareholder was Cambior Inc. of Quebec.
Some 23,000 victims of the spill filed suit in Quebec against Cambior, assisted by Recherches Internationales Quebec (RIQ). Cambior contested the court’s jurisdiction and denied responsibility for any acts of negligence of the Guyana company. RIQ argued that Cambior financed the project and made all the strategic decisions relating to the operations in Guyana.
The court held that the courts of both Quebec and Guyana had jurisdiction to try the issues. However, neither the victims nor their action had any real connection with Quebec.
The court applied the common-law doctrine of “forum non conveniens” (Quebec Civil Code Article 3135), which provides: “Even though a Quebec authority has jurisdiction to hear a dispute, it may exceptionally and on an application by a party, decline jurisdiction if it considers that the authorities of another country are in a better position to decide.”
The mine was located in Guyana. That was where the victims resided. That was also were the spill occurred and where the victims suffered damage. The law to determine the rights and obligations of the victims was the law of Guyana. All the elements of proof upon which a court would base its judgment were located primarily in Guyana.
Nor did the Court find, as RIQ suggested, that the victims would be denied justice should it decline to exercise its jurisdiction. It was true that if the case was to be heard in Guyana, the victims would lose the benefit of the class action vehicle available to them in Quebec. However, the court emphasized that it could not be said that the victims would left without an adequate recourse in Guyana. They had available to them what was known as a representative action. Although this remedy did not appear to provide the victims with the same procedural and evidentiary advantages as a class action it did permit them to sue Cambior collectively. They could also proceed by way of individual actions, should the so choose.
Those factors taken as a whole pointed to Guyana, not Quebec, as the natural and appropriate forum where the case should be tried. The motion by RIQ was dismissed.