Survivors of Toronto's Danforth shooting get green light on lawsuit against gun manufacturer

Paola Loriggio · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Jun 23, 2025 4:44 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

Survivors of a wide shooting successful Toronto's Greektown and their relatives tin proceed with a class-action suit against the weapon shaper Smith & Wesson aft Ontario's apical tribunal overturned a ruling that had dismissed their question to certify the claim.

Eighteen-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis were killed, and 13 others injured, erstwhile a gunman went connected a shooting rampage connected Danforth Avenue successful July 2018.

The gunman, who utilized a stolen semi-automatic handgun made by Smith & Wesson, past turned the limb connected himself.

Some of the survivors and their families brought a people enactment against the gunmaker for failing to instrumentality exertion that would forestall unauthorized usage of the gun, but the assertion failed astatine the certification stage.

The motions justice recovered that the plaintiffs' negligence assertion didn't conscionable 1 of the criteria for certification, which requires them to suggest issues that are communal to the members of the class.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario has recovered the motions justice acceptable the barroom excessively precocious by fundamentally requiring the plaintiffs to beryllium their lawsuit connected its merits astatine the certification stage.

"The plaintiffs were not required to show that their negligence assertion would yet beryllium successful, oregon adjacent that determination was a prima facie case," the tribunal said successful a unanimous decision.

"Rather, they had to amusement immoderate ground successful the grounds that the defendant's nonaccomplishment to see the authorized idiosyncratic exertion constituted negligence and caused oregon accrued the hazard of harm to the members of the class. And that is precise antithetic than proving the lawsuit connected a equilibrium of probabilities astatine trial."

The plaintiffs welcomed the ruling and said they are seeking justness done safer handguns and firm accountability.

"Handgun manufacturers similar Smith & Wesson person agelong known their products tin beryllium designed to forestall the benignant of unlawful usage that led to the Danforth shooting," they said successful a statement.

Smith & Wesson did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

The Danforth onslaught marked 1 of the worst wide shootings successful the city's history, sending shockwaves crossed the state and spurring advocacy for stronger weapon power measures.