Cory Wanless has been actively litigating cases of public importance for over a decade and a half. He has represented clients before courts in Ontario, BC, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, and at the Supreme Court of Canada. Cory has particular interest and experience in complex civil litigation and class actions, especially as it relates to corporate accountability, Indigenous rights, Aboriginal law, police and state accountability and defending human rights defenders.
Cory often represents clients in high-profile and precedent-setting cases. Cory is currently co-counsel in a class action against Canada regarding its shameful practice of holding immigration detainees in provincial prisons and in a class action against Canada and Newfoundland regarding abuse and destruction of language and culture at Innu Day Schools. He is also part of the legal team representing the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs in a lawsuit seeking recognition of their Aboriginal title over their homeland. Cory was a key member of the class counsel team in a class action against the Canadian government for collective harms caused to Indigenous bands by Canada’s residential school policy that, on the eve of trial, secured one of the largest class action settlements in Canadian history. In 2021, he was part of the Day Scholars class counsel team that secured a settlement on behalf of residential school survivors who attended but did not reside at residential schools, and who were left out of the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.
Cory was counsel in the groundbreaking and ultimately successful corporate accountability lawsuit against Hudbay Minerals regarding serious human rights abuse in Guatemala. Cory was lead counsel for the University of Toronto Faculty of Law International Human Rights Program in an intervention at the Supreme Court in a case regarding the use of forced labour at a Canadian-owned mine in Eritrea.
Cory often represents clients in Charter and human rights lawsuits against police and other law enforcement – often in cases involving racism and racial profiling. His representation of a young Black man who was assaulted by Toronto Transit Commission Fare Inspectors led to the TTC committing to a system-wide anti-racism strategy aimed at preventing racial profiling.
Cory is a frequent speaker on the topics of corporate accountability, mining and human rights, and has guest-lectured at universities and faculties of law throughout Canada.
In 2021, Cory was named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List 2021, and recognized as a 2021 Lexpert Rising Star (leading lawyers under 40). Cory was named as a Benchmark Litigation Future Star in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Updated March 2026
