Employees' claims of sales pressure spark shareholder lawsuit against TD Bank

Thursday, February 11, 2021 – by Helen Surgenor

Here’s what you need to know to get the day started:

Employees' claims of sales pressure spark shareholder lawsuit against TD Bank

A class-action lawsuit against TD Bank is once again shining light on allegations from employees who claimed the company had an unethical sales culture.

Three TD employees contacted CBC’s Go Public in 2017, alleging relentless pressure to meet sales targets by doing things like signing up customers for credit cards, adding overdraft protection to customers' accounts or moving them into more expensive chequing accounts.

Then, hundreds more current and former TD employees got in touch. TD calls the CBC News stories "vague, unsubstantiated" and "unverifiable."

After those reports in March 2017, shares in Toronto-Dominion Bank posted their biggest loss since 2009 — plunging more than 5.5 per cent.

Now, a lawsuit has been filed under the Quebec Securities Act. It claims investors purchased TD stock based on "false and misleading statements" from TD Bank.

"This class action is not a direct hit on the practice of pressure selling, it's indirect," said Jasminka Kalajdzic, associate professor at the University of Windsor's faculty of law. "Investors are saying they wouldn't have bought the stock if they'd known about the pressure to sell."

TD submitted its statement of defence earlier this week. It strongly denies the allegations of a widespread, unethical sales culture and said the lawsuit should be dismissed.

But a TD Bank teller who first spoke out said she feels vindicated by the class-action lawsuit.

"It makes me know that I did the right thing, coming forward," she said.

More on this issue

Read why some employees said they felt pressured to break the law.

Read the original Go Public report from 2017.

Hope the dogs know the way...

(Martin Meissner/The Associated Press)

People walk with their dogs in a snow-covered garden maze in Gelsenkirchen, Germany on Wednesday. Extreme winter weather hit Germany yesterday from north to west, and even the industrial Ruhr valley got an unexpected blanket of snow.

In brief

The Canada Revenue Agency is preparing for a tax season like no other. An unprecedented number of people are expected to have questions about how the past year’s pandemic benefits will affect their taxes. The CRA is planning to hire 2,000 new employees to help deal with the calls. It’s also taking the unusual step of hiring a private company to answer some Canadians' questions — and that is raising privacy concerns. Read what the CRA is doing to address them here.

Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine may have political side effects. Health-wise it’s been validated by a report last week in the Lancet medical journal. A review of Phase 3 trials confirms the vaccine is safe and effective, and its maker demonstrated solid scientific principles. But internationally, some countries are slow to recognize the vaccine. Judy Twigg, an expert on the politics of global health at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Russia’s adversaries, and countries concerned by the Kremlin’s recent mass arrests of opposition protesters, "don't want to give Vladimir Putin, in these circumstances, a political win." Read more about the Sputnik V vaccine here.

Christine Nayler says a supervised consumption site in Barrie, Ont., could have saved her son Ryan’s life. She said Ryan was open about the fact he was using crack cocaine to deal with his bipolar disorder, and he would have checked the safety of his supply, if he could. He died last year after using drugs that were laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl. Nayler said she’s determined to see a supervised consumption site open in Barrie. But the city's business leaders are paying $28,000 to a lobbying firm to have a proposed site moved away from the downtown area. Read the controversial remarks made by the chair of the Downtown Barrie Business Improvement Area.

The City of Vancouver voted this week to name its first street after a Black woman, Nora Hendrix. She co-founded the city’s first Black church, and was the grandmother of famed musician Jimi Hendrix. Here’s the thing: even after Nora Hendrix Way takes its new name, Vancouver will only have six streets named after people of colour. It has twice that many named after the works of novelist Walter Scott. It has 26 streets named after golf courses. Read why advocates say they want more than a symbolic pat on the back for Black History Month.

Today, pop star Britney Spears heads back to court for the latest hearing in her ongoing fight to exert more control over her person and estate. Spears, 39, has been under court-ordered conservatorship since 2008, when a judge deemed she was unable to care for herself and susceptible to undue influence. A lot of people are seeing that decision, and Spears’s public mental health struggle, with new eyes after Framing Britney Spears aired in the U.S. last week. The episode of The New York Times Presents takes a critical look at the media coverage of Spears and her personal life. Read all about it here.

Now for some good news to start your Thursday: After a decade of chronic homelessness — mostly living in a tent or sleeping in a bunk bed at an emergency shelter — Ashley Perry feels like she’s finally on "the right path." She credits Sue MacDonnell, a case worker at Moncton's Harvest House, who is dedicated to helping every person at the shelter come up with a plan to find a permanent home. "Sue's actually like a mother figure to me," Perry said. She has been off drugs for nearly a month now, and she just checked in to a new women's recovery home, where she can stay for up to a year. Now, Perry’s working on accomplishing her other goals. Read more about the program helping people leave shelter life here.

For stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada.

With schools reopening, how do you keep kids safe?

COVID-19 cases have started to go down nationally — but there remain two big challenges in this second wave of the pandemic: the threat of multiple coronavirus variants and access to vaccines.

But despite that, provinces such as Ontario are starting to lift restrictions, from those on non-essential businesses to schools. Today on Front Burner, infectious disease epidemiologist Amy Greer on her concerns, and what it would take to make schools safe.
Listen to today's episode

Today in history: February 11

1834: William Lyon Mackenzie is forcibly ejected from Upper Canada's legislature.

1922: The first paper is published announcing the discovery of insulin to treat diabetes. The finding was made by University of Toronto researchers Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best.

1990: Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end apartheid in South Africa, is freed from jail at the age of 71.

1999: The largest Canadian single-day snowfall — 145 centimetres — is recorded in Tahtsa Lake, B.C., a remote area west of Prince George.