Three Settlement Deadlines Close in October — and One “Open” Claim Shut in March

If you have been meaning to file a settlement claim and keep putting it off, the next seven weeks decide it. Three separate Canadian claim deadlines close between October 15 and October 21, and none of them get extended because you were busy.

There is a second problem, and it is worse than procrastination. Several “open settlements” lists still show claims periods that closed months ago. People are filling in forms for money that is no longer available, and finding out only when nothing arrives.

Here is the verified calendar, checked this week against the claims administrators and the government pages themselves — not against aggregator lists.

The three that close in October

Canadian Armed Forces systemic racism — October 15

Deadline: October 15, 2026. The claims period opened on October 15, 2025 and runs exactly twelve months.

Who it covers: current and former CAF members who experienced racial discrimination or racial harassment in connection with their service between April 17, 1985 and January 10, 2025.

Amount: this is one of the few settlements where the administrator publishes real per-person figures. National Defence states the range of individual compensation is $5,000 to $35,000, set by the claims administrator. The base Common Experience Payment is $5,000, with higher tiers of $10,000, $20,000 and $30,000 available where a claimant submits narrative evidence that is assessed and accepted.

The higher tiers require you to write an account of what happened. That takes time. If you are eligible and have not started, this is the claim to open first — we covered the case in detail when the military racism class action was first certified.

Silk and Great Value plant-based recall — October 16

Deadline: October 16, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. PST. The Pacific time zone matters if you are filing late in the evening from Ontario or the Maritimes.

Who it covers: anyone in Canada who bought or consumed the Silk Canada or Great Value products caught by the recall Danone Canada started on July 8, 2024, plus family members and dependants of people who were injured.

Fund: $7,500,000. Payments are set by a compensation grid tied to the category of illness a claimant falls into, so what you receive depends on what you can document. Our full breakdown of who can actually claim goes through the categories.

CIBC and Renaissance funds held through a discount broker — October 21

Deadline: October 21, 2026.

Who it covers: anyone who held units of a CIBC Mutual Fund trust or a Renaissance Mutual Fund trust through a discount broker between September 18, 2003 and January 25, 2024. That is a class period of more than twenty years, which means closed accounts still count.

Fund: C$26 million. Be careful here: a second, separate CIBC settlement of C$11 million covers holdings that were not through a discount broker, and it has a different deadline of November 18, 2026. Filing on the wrong one gets you rejected. We wrote a guide on telling the two CIBC settlements apart, because this is the single most common mistake we see right now.

Two more with longer runways

Ontario staffing-related jail lockdowns — December 1, 2026. A $59 million settlement covering inmates and immigration detainees held in Ontario correctional institutions between May 30, 2009 and November 27, 2017. The notice sets a threshold: you must have experienced 16 or more staffing-related lockdowns to be eligible for compensation.

Government of Canada online account breach — February 3, 2027. This one only opened for claims on August 4, 2026, and it is the largest by number of people affected. It covers anyone whose information in a CRA My Account, My Service Canada Account or other GCKey-accessed account was disclosed without authorization between March 1 and December 31, 2020.

The published amounts are modest and specific: access claims pay $20 per hour for up to four hours, capped at $80. Fraud claims pay $20 per hour for up to ten hours, capped at $200. A separate fund reimburses documented out-of-pocket losses up to $5,000. If you were caught in the 2020 credential-stuffing attacks, this is the same matter as the CRA data breach settlement we have been tracking — it has now been approved and the claims process is live.

The one that already closed

The Canadian Armed Forces delayed pension class action — a different case from the racism settlement above — closed to claims on March 30, 2026. Class counsel confirms the claims period ran from October 1, 2025 to March 30, 2026 after being revised from its original dates.

It still appears on “open settlements” round-ups. This is the failure mode of the whole aggregator category: a page gets built when a settlement is announced, ranks well in search, and then nobody updates it when the window shuts. That case had its dates revised partway through, which made it even easier for third-party lists to fall behind.

Aggregators are fine for finding out that a settlement exists. They are not a source for whether you can still file. Only the administrator’s own site is.

How much will you actually get?

For most of these, nobody knows yet — and be sceptical of any site that gives you a firm per-person number.

The chart above shows fund sizes, not cheques. A $59 million fund split among tens of thousands of claimants can pay less per person than a $7.5 million fund with a narrow class. Most Canadian settlements distribute pro rata: the administrator processes every valid claim first, then divides. Your share is not knowable until that happens.

Two of the settlements here are exceptions, and both are exceptions because a government department published the numbers: the CAF racism tiers and the online-account breach caps. Everything else on this page is pro rata or grid-based. Treat any confident dollar figure from a site that is not the administrator as a guess dressed up as a fact.

The practical consequence is the same either way: file, even if you expect the amount to be small. You cannot find out first and file later.

What to do this week

Start with October 15. The CAF racism claim is the one with the shortest runway and the most work attached, because the higher compensation tiers need a written account. Everything else on this list can be done faster.

Verify the deadline on the administrator’s own site before you file. Not on a round-up, not on a social post, not on this page. Deadlines in these cases genuinely move — the CAF pension claims period was revised twice. The administrator’s site is the only thing that governs.

Dig out old statements and notices. The CIBC class period starts in 2003 and the Ontario lockdown class starts in 2009. Accounts you closed and addresses you moved from still count. Many class members were mailed a claim ID and PIN they threw away; administrators can usually reissue one.

Do not pay anyone to file a claim for you. Every claim process on this page is free. Class counsel fees are paid out of the approved settlement fund, not by you. Any service charging an upfront fee to “process” or “fast-track” your settlement claim is taking money for something you can do yourself in minutes, and it has no special access to any administrator.

Expect phishing, especially around benefit changes. Fraudulent texts and emails spike whenever a claims period opens or a government payment changes — the switch from the GST/HST credit to the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit produced exactly that wave this summer. No claims administrator and no federal department will text you a link asking for banking details to release a payment. Go to the official site directly, or check CRA My Account yourself.

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More open settlements

• Two CIBC Mutual Fund Settlements Are Open at Once — Which One Applies
• $7.5M Silk and Great Value Recall Settlement: Who Can Actually Claim
• Ontario Jail Lockdown $59 Million Settlement
• Scotiabank $10.45M Settlement: Are You One of the 148,000?

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Figures and deadlines verified as of September 3, 2026 against the claims administrators and Government of Canada notices. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice. Settlement terms, deadlines and eligibility rules can and do change. Always confirm on the official settlement website or with class counsel before filing, and check benefit amounts in CRA My Account.