Claire's Canada: 548 creditors, and a blank proxy counts as yes

The letter runs to four pages, and four documents come with it — a plan, a notice, a proxy form and a one-sentence resolution. It tells the creditors of 6045073 Canada Inc., formerly Claire's Stores Canada Corp., that the monitor estimates a recovery of approximately 58% to 62% of their proven claims, that the estimated recovery on the liquidating trust's allowed claim of CA$32,149,513.19 is approximately 7% to 9%, and that the monitor recommends they vote for the plan, per the Letter to Creditors, Sept. 18, 2026, pp. 2–3. The vote is on November 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Toronto time, online. A creditor who wants to attend and vote rather than send a proxy has to email the monitor by 5:00 p.m. on November 10 for a personal meeting identification number, per the Notice of Creditors' Meeting, Sept. 18, 2026, p. 1.

The package is the product of a September 14 attendance, at which the monitor brought its settlement with the American parent's liquidating trust — approximately $72.59 million claimed — and the plan built around it before Justice Cavanagh, who granted both a meeting order and a stay extension to March 12, 2027, per the Endorsement of Cavanagh J., Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 1, 11, 13, 28.

What the September 14 attendance decided, and what it deferred

The threshold at this stage is a low one, and the endorsement says so before it says anything else about the plan's merits. "While the feasibility of the plan is a relevant and significant factor to be considered in determining whether to order a meeting of creditors, a court should not impose a heavy burden on a debtor (or in this case, the Monitor) to establish the likelihood of ultimate success of a plan from the outset. Courts are not required to address the fairness and reasonableness of the Plan at this stage," per the Endorsement of Cavanagh J., Sept. 14, 2026, para. 19, citing Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2022 ONSC 4433. The monitor's factum had put the same point with the authorities behind it, adding that fairness "will be thoroughly briefed at the motion for a Sanction Order," per the Factum of the Monitor, Sept. 10, 2026, paras. 39–44.

Two things were decided rather than deferred. The first is classification: one class, the Unsecured Creditors' Class, on the footing that there are no known secured creditors and that every affected creditor would have similar remedies outside the CCAA, per the Endorsement of Cavanagh J., Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 21–22. The second is the settlement and support agreement of September 3, 2026, approved nunc pro tunc on the Sino-Forest factors — fair and reasonable, of benefit to stakeholders generally, consistent with the purpose and spirit of the statute, per the Endorsement of Cavanagh J., Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 23–25 and the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 45.

How the vote is counted

The required majority is a majority in number of affected creditors holding at least two-thirds in value of the voting claims of those who actually vote, in person by virtual means or by proxy, per the Plan of Compromise and Arrangement, Sept. 4, 2026, Art. 1, "Required Majority". Quorum is one creditor with a voting claim, per the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 15. Each affected creditor has one vote in the dollar amount of its claim as determined for voting purposes, rounded down to the whole dollar; nobody holding an intercompany claim votes at all, per the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 20. The monitor's factum ties the two together in a footnote: under s. 22(3) of the CCAA a creditor related to the debtor may not vote in favour of a plan, so the settlement has the liquidating trust abstain and the meeting order confirms that no holder of an intercompany claim may vote, per the Factum of the Monitor, Sept. 10, 2026, para. 50, n. 46.

The Canada Revenue Agency has one vote, valued at $1 for its disputed claims, without prejudice to what those claims are worth for distribution, per the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, para. 24. Every other creditor with a disputed claim votes in the amount set out in the notice of revision or disallowance it received, or in its own proof of claim if none was sent, and those votes are recorded separately and reported to the court afterward, per the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 25–26.

The proxy form must reach the monitor by 5:00 p.m. on November 10, and it offers two boxes, FOR and AGAINST. "Please note that if no specification is made above, the Affected Creditor will be deemed to have voted FOR the approval of the Plan at the Creditors' Meeting provided the Affected Creditor does not otherwise exercise its right to vote," per the The Proxy, Sept. 14, 2026, p. 3; the meeting order says the same thing in the language of an order, per the Meeting Order, Sept. 14, 2026, paras. 21–22. A creditor who signs a proxy and then logs in and votes has revoked it. All of it is aimed at a single sentence: the resolution asks that the plan "be and it is hereby accepted, approved, agreed to and authorized," per the The Resolution, Sept. 4, 2026.

The 465 creditors who worked in the stores

Of the 548 claims filed, with a face value of $76,056,000, 465 are employee claims. They total $509,000 and every one of them has been accepted; they were handled by negative notice, the monitor calculating each claim and sending it out, and one dispute came back, resolved consensually, per the Fifth Report of the Monitor, Sept. 4, 2026, §3.0 paras. 5–6.