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Amendment to Ontario's Limitations Act
Removing the Clock on Justice for Terror Victims
When Parliament enacted the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (JVTA) in 2012, landmark legislation championed by Secure Canada's predecessor organization, the Canadian Coalition Against Terror, it opened Canadian courts to victims of terrorism seeking to hold perpetrators and their sponsors civilly accountable. Parliament deliberately reached back in time: the JVTA applies to losses arising from terrorism committed on or after January 1, 1985.
But a second barrier remained. In Ontario, standard limitation periods generally require civil claims to be brought within two years. For victims of terrorism, that deadline was profoundly unsuited to reality. Terror victims and their families often need years, sometimes decades, before they are able to pursue legal action: evidence against perpetrators and sponsors emerges slowly, foreign sponsors conceal their roles, and the trauma of the attacks themselves takes time to overcome. A statute written to reach back to 1985 was of little use if the clock ran out in two years.
Building on legal tools for victims, Secure Canada is responsible for an amendment to Ontario's Limitations Act that lifts the two-year limitation period for lawsuits launched by terror victims under the JVTA. As a result of this amendment, there is no limitation period for these claims in Ontario: victims of terrorism can bring JVTA claims whenever they are ready, no matter how long ago the attack occurred.
Why This Matters Now
The amendment ensures that the JVTA can do what Parliament intended. Claims arising from attacks decades past, reaching all the way back to the 1985 date Parliament wrote into the Act, remain open to Ontario courts. Perpetrators and sponsors of terrorism cannot simply run out the clock on their victims, and families who were not ready to litigate in the immediate aftermath of an attack have not lost their day in court.
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