Tina Q. Yang

Tina Yang helps people leverage the legal system to seek justice when their rights have been violated, whether as workers, consumers, investors, or simply humans. This includes prosecuting class actions and mass torts to address collective wrongs, as well as a diverse range of other civil litigation.

Tina’s class action experience is noteworthy for its breadth, as she has achieved successes for clients in cases relating to: Charter breaches & state accountability, institutional abuse, Indigenous rights, employment law, privacy breaches, consumer protection/product liability, securities and other financial frauds, professional negligence, and more.

Having litigated a number of cases through the discovery and trial preparation processes―including acting as counsel in the first ever Federal Court class action common issues trial―Tina is one of the few class action lawyers with the experience to tackle the unique challenges of trial and push cases forward to secure the best possible outcome for her clients.

Other highlights of Tina’s precedent-setting experience include acting as counsel in:

• Gottfriedson v Canada, the Residential Schools Day Scholars and First Nations Reparations class action, which resulted in two landmark settlements, amongst the largest in Canadian class actions history;
• Doucet v Royal Winnipeg Ballet, a voyeurism and institutional negligence class action that settled just prior to trial. Canada’s most experienced class action judge praised the legal services provided as being “of the highest quality”. This case also ended in a pro bono appeal codifying the practice of awarding honoraria to recognize the efforts and contribution of representative plaintiffs; and
• Merlo & Davidson v Canada, the first successful gender-based discrimination and harassment class action in Canada.

A proud Prairie expat, Tina is called to the bar in both Ontario and her home province of Saskatchewan. She has represented clients before all levels of court in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, as well as the Federal Courts and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

Tina is frequently invited to speak to other lawyers and to law students on class action, civil procedure, and privacy law issues. She sits on the executive of The Advocates’ Society Class Actions Practice Group, the editorial board of the Toronto Law Journal, and the steering committee of the Cambridge Forum on Class Actions. She previously taught class actions law at Queen’s University, and served in leadership positions with the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the Ontario Class Actions Bench-Bar Liaison Committee, and the Ontario Bar Association’s Class Actions Law section executive.

Outside of the law, Tina volunteers her time as a Director of Anduhyaun Inc., Canada’s oldest Indigenous women’s shelter. She is passionate about Lucille Clifton, floristry, and the Toronto Raptors.