James Anderson is no dyed-in-the-wool consumer advocate, but that 75-cent-per-month charge on his Bell Mobility bill for 911 service – which doesn’t exist in his hometown of Yellowknife – was an irritant for more than two years. “The fact that they’re charging for non-existent services is not right, it’s not fair and it’s a breach of contract,” says Anderson, retired superintendent of schools in the Northwest Territories and part-time day trader. At times he was paying the charge three times over; for his personal phone, his business phone and his son’s phone as well.

A meeting in Yellowknife with Toronto lawyer and class action specialist Keith Landy got the ball rolling. Landy looked at Anderson’s material and the two decided to launch a class action lawsuit against Bell in the NWT for $6-million in general and punitive damages. Canadians in remote locations saddled with 911 charges for non-existent service can join the suit, which has not yet been certified.