A landmark David-versus-Goliath legal battle is unfolding in the town of Shannon, Que.

In 2007, residents of the small community northeast of Quebec City won the right to seek damages in a class-action lawsuit against the federal government over the town’s contaminated water supply.

Now, a trial is underway with the potential for billions worth of damages on the line for 2,300 current and past Shannon residents.

The lawsuit alleges munitions manufacturer Industries Valcartier Inc. and the Department of National Defence were negligent in handling and disposing of trichloroethylene, or TCE, a known carcinogenic substance used at nearby Canadian Forces base Valcartier.

For 40 years, personnel at CFB Valcartier used TCE as a cleaning agent for cannons and other military hardware at the base.

In 2000, TCE was discovered in Shannon’s water wells. For years, residents unknowingly drank and bathed in water laced with the deadly toxic substance.

Around the same time, residents started to take note of an increasingly high rate of cancer diagnoses. 500 cancer cases were documented in Shannon, 200 of which proved fatal, an alarmingly high rate of disease for a town with a population barely 4,000-strong.

While legal counsel for the government dismissed residents’ claims for a lack of scientific evidence, Charles Veilleux, the lawyer representing the people of Shannon, will attempt to prove how exposure to TCE is directly linked to the high rate of cancer and illness in Shannon.

BRITISH Airways and other carriers accused of fixing cargo prices could face US-style class action suits in Britain for the first time. A ruling on the case is expected today.

Two flower shippers who were denied the right to form a group to sue British Airways now wait for the Court of Appeal ruling.

A ruling in favour of the flower shippers could show it is possible to adopt a class action model in the UK without waiting for new legislative changes, London-based antirust lawyer Frances Murphy, who leads the antitrust practice at Jones Day LLP, told Bloomberg.

The ruling tomorrow has the potential to “mushroom”, said Murphy, by making it cheaper and faster to seek damages in the UK against companies that collude to inflate prices.

British Airways and 10 other carriers were fined a total of 799.4 million euros by the European Union last week following a three year probe of the cartel.

Customer class actions are rare in the UK, and have not been done on the scale that they have in the US.

If the cargo customers win their appeal and are permitted to form a call to sue the airline, the Court would essentially be loosening a Century-old rule, brining the UK closer to the US in terms of recovery for customers, Bloomberg reports.

The European Commission will relaunch a debate next month on a controversial plan to help consumers launch class-action lawsuits to seek compensation for anti-competitive practices, according to a Commission document.

Collective redress makes it easier for small claimants in cross-border disputes to take action by allowing a large number of small claims to be bundled and brought to court by a third-party representative, such as a recognised consumer organisation.

According to European Commission figures from 2008, "76% of consumers would be more willing to defend their rights in court if they could join together with other consumers".

Financial services (39%), telecoms (12%), transport (8%) and package tourism (7%) were identified as the sectors in which consumers find it most difficult to obtain redress for mass claims by a study carried out by the EU executive.

But the proposals were shelved after criticism from companies worried about US-style class-action lawsuits and the possibility of hefty punitive damages. Class actions are rare in Europe.

Interested parties will be able to give their views during a consultation that will run until the end of February, the document showed.

In a May report commissioned by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, elder statesman Mario Monti said it should be easier for victims of unfair business behaviour to be compensated in order to boost consumer confidence in the single market.

A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a settlement with two defendants who pleaded guilty to fixing gas prices in exchange for their co-operation in a class-action lawsuit.

The class action was filed by drivers against what they're alleging was a cartel in the retail gas markets in Quebec.

Under the deal for their pleas, the defendants, from Sherbrooke, Que., will be released from the class action and will work with the Automobile Protection Association, which is spearheading the legal challenge on behalf of some 12,000 Quebec drivers.

Association president George Iny said Justice Dominique Belanger's decision is a milestone.

"It's a very important development in the case," Iny said.

The class action was authorized in December 2009 against 12 oil companies and 19 individuals. The targeted companies include: Ultramar, Esso, Imperial, Shell, Couche-Tard, Provigo, Irving, Olco and la Coop federee, which operates Sonic stations.

The plaintiffs are seeking between $7 and $15 million in damages — $1,500 for each motorist and $250,000 for the association to be spent on protecting drivers' rights.

The class action was filed a day after a Competition Bureau of Canada investigation alleged, in June 2008, that gas station owners in four Quebec cities called one another to set the pump price. A total of 13 Quebecers and 11 companies were charged with gas price-fixing.

In her decision, the judge has agreed to set up a process to allow the plaintiffs to have access to some of the evidence held by the Crown.

The European Union's high court temporarily exempted Inuit hunters in Canada and Greenland on Friday from the bloc's new trade ban on seal products, while asking European Parliament and EU governments to justify the ban.

Indigenous people had argued their livelihoods depend on their ability to hunt seals and export products such as seal meat, pelts, blubber, organs and oil used in producing omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

They said the EU ban on seal products, which went into effect Friday, disproportionately impacted their traditional way of life.

EU governments have argued that Canada's annual seal hunt was inhumane in allowing pups to be clubbed to death so their pelts would not be damaged by bullets or blades.

The Inuit account for only 1 percent of Canadian seal imports into the EU. These amounted to euro4.1 million last year, according to EU data.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which lobbied intensely for the ban, said it hoped Friday's exemption was short-lived.

"We expect this to be a brief delay in the full implementation of the EU seal ban," group spokesman Adrian Hiel said.

Mexico's Supreme Court voted Monday to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples.

The justices voted 9-2 against challenges presented by federal prosecutors and others who had argued the law fails to protect adoptive children against possible ill effects or discrimination, or to guarantee their rights to a traditional family.

Justices voting with the majority argued that once same-sex marriages had been approved, it would be discriminatory to consider those couples less capable of parental duties than heterosexual couples.

The court voted earlier this month by the same margin to uphold same-sex marriages themselves under a Mexico City law enacted March 4.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples have married under the law, but city officials have not yet reported any applications by those couples to adopt children.