About the Class Action

Maples is a personal care home with a capacity for up to 200 residents. On or about October 18, 2020, staff at Maples identified a resident that resided on the second floor as having symptoms indicative of COVID-19.  On October 20, 2020, test results for this resident confirmed that they were positive for COVID-19. On October 20, 2020, an outbreak was publicly declared at Maples by the WRHA and Manitoba’s Public Health.This outbreak lasted until January 12, 2021 when the outbreak was declared over by the WRHA and/or the Province of Manitoba. 

During the outbreak period, 157 residents of Maples had tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 56 residents have since died from complications of COVID-19.

Further at least 73 staff of Maples tested positive for COVID-19 during the outbreak period and were required to be absent from their staffing duties at Maples for various periods of time while they recovered.  In addition, several other staff of Maples were required to be absent from their duties during the outbreak period in order to self-isolate, or otherwise were absent on sick leave.

As a result of the staff absences, Maples suffered significant and critical staff shortages and was unable to ensure the basic care needs of the residents were met and were unable to ensure the safety of the residents and control or limit the spread of COVID-19 amongst the residents and staff.

Updates

May 2025:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in June 2024. The hearing for the certification motion has been scheduled for December 11^th and 12^th, 2025. At the certification motion, the court will decide whether a class action is the appropriate mechanism to address the issues raised in this claim. We will provide another update once the motion is heard.

June 2024:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in December 2023. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. Since then, we have filed a Notice of Motion seeking certification of this action. We are working with defence counsel to set a timetable for next steps in this action. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance.

December 2023:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in July. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. Since then, we have filed a Notice of Motion seeking certification of this action. We are working with defence counsel to set a timetable for next steps in this action. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance.

July 2023:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in March. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel.  Since then, we have filed a Notice of Motion seeking certification of this action. We are working with defence counsel to set a timetable for next steps in this action. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance.

March 2023:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in December. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel.  Since then, we have filed a Notice of Motion seeking certification of this action. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance.

December 2022:

We write to provide you with a further update beyond the update provided in August. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

August 2022:

Further to our April update, we write to provide you with a further update. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

April 2022:

We write to provide you with a further update to our December update. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

December 2021:

We write to provide you with a further update to our August update. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.

August 2021:

We write to provide you with a further update to our June 9th update. As mentioned in our last update, we have issued our Statement of Claim and have delivered it to opposing counsel. We will be providing another update following our first court appearance, which has not yet been scheduled.