Lion Force: a 10-day CCAA stay refused, and some 70 trailers in Texas

By the time Justice F.L. Myers heard the case on May 15, 2026, two of Lion Force Transport Inc.'s equipment lessors had started collecting without him. Ten Leasing, which says it owns 158 vehicles leased to the Brampton trucking group, had bailiffs out trying to repossess them. The day before, TD Equipment Finance had obtained an order from another judge of the court confirming that its leases were terminated and directing Lion Force, which had been unwilling to say where the vehicles were, to hand over their GPS coordinates; the vehicles, the endorsement says, were apparently in Mexico. "Unfortunately, there is already a race of creditors to reclaim assets under way," Myers J. wrote, per the Endorsement of Justice F.L. Myers, May 15, 2026, paras. 18–19.

The same endorsement dismissed the group's own application under the CCAA and granted Royal Bank of Canada's application to appoint The Fuller Landau Group Inc. as receiver of Lion Force, 2696942 Ontario Inc. (269) and 2854233 Ontario Inc. (285) under s. 243(1) of the BIA, per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 57 and the Receivership Order, May 15, 2026, para. 2. In July, Fuller took the receivership to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to reach about 80 of Lion Force's trailers in Texas and Michigan, more than US$1,900,000 of receivables owed by U.S. counterparties and a bank account in North Carolina, per the Verified Petition of Foreign Representative, July 21, 2026, paras. 4, 14–16. On August 26, Judge Alfredo R. Pérez recognized the receivership as a foreign main proceeding, per the Order Granting Verified Petition, Aug. 26, 2026, para. 2.

More than a year of forbearance

RBC's affiant, Tro DerBedrossian, quoted the company's website: Lion Force "services clients located in the Midwest and Southern United States of America (USA) as well as across Ontario and Quebec." The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website, he added, listed 227 vehicles and 300 drivers. The head office at 27 Automatic Road in Brampton, a commercial building and truck depot, belongs to 269, per the Declaration of Gary Abrahamson, July 21, 2026, Ex. A (Affidavit of Tro DerBedrossian, sworn Apr. 29, 2026), paras. 5–6. Myers J. adds a U.S. affiliate, operations in Mexico and employees in India running a help desk, per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 2.

RBC lent to two of the companies: Lion Force had a $6,000,000 revolving demand facility and a $1,500,000 revolving lease line, and 269 a $42,000,000 term facility and a second of $2,682,000, per the Verified Petition, July 21, 2026, para. 18. The companies guaranteed one another: 285 and Lion Force each guaranteed 269's obligations up to $55,864,000 plus interest, and 269 and 285 each guaranteed Lion Force's up to $7,625,000 plus interest. The three directors and officers personally guaranteed Lion Force's debts to the same $7,625,000 limit, and the head office carries RBC's charge in the registered principal amount of $44,682,000, per the DerBedrossian Affidavit, Apr. 29, 2026, paras. 4, 9, 11, 13(b). RBC's demand letters of March 3, 2026 put the debt at CAD$51,242,543.76 and USD$1,353,017.84, per the DerBedrossian Affidavit, Apr. 29, 2026, para. 34. Myers J. put it at around $53 million, the bulk secured by the mortgage on the head office, per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 4.

The borrowers had been in default since September 2024, according to the bank, and a series of forbearance agreements followed. The first, of February 6, 2025, required the group to cooperate with Fuller as RBC's financial advisor. Later agreements asked for a $1.5 million equity injection (the debtors put in $1.25 million, in instalments that autumn), repayment in full by August 31, 2025, two $1 million paydowns, and a $750,000 capital injection by the end of 2025; the last extension ran to March 31, 2026. RBC's affiant says the first amendment was "largely not complied with" and the terms of each later agreement were not met either, per the DerBedrossian Affidavit, Apr. 29, 2026, paras. 23–29.

The affiant was advised by Fuller that Lion Force had failed to meet its payroll obligations to its drivers in January 2026 and was in arrears to its fuel suppliers. A municipal certificate of March 2, 2026 showed $547,783.87 of property tax arrears on the head office, and RBC demanded payment on March 3. In early April Lion Force asked RBC to fund $205,130.67 of premiums to reinstate the insurance on its fleet, and RBC refused. On April 22 the bank received a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board garnishment for $623,703.86, which the affiant understands is no longer in effect, and on April 29 he learned that both of Lion Force's Export Development Canada receivables policies had been cancelled. "At this stage, RBC has lost faith in the Debtors' management," Mr. DerBedrossian swore, per the DerBedrossian Affidavit, Apr. 29, 2026, paras. 31–39, 41.

Lion Force's own account, in Myers J.'s summary of its submissions, is that its problems stem largely from "its errant purchase of its head office." It had hoped to lease out a large part of the property to defray the cost, had been unable to, and blamed the bank for refusing to agree, per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, para. 29.

Ten days, and a DIP on less than 24 hours' notice

With RBC's application outstanding since the beginning of May, Lion Force filed a notice of intention to make a proposal on May 13 and, the same day, issued a notice of application to convert it into a CCAA proceeding. The NOI stay did not bind RBC, whose enforcement notices predated it, and the bank's counsel learned of the NOI only when the CCAA material arrived on the afternoon and evening of May 14. Lion Force asked for a stay of 10 days to show it had a viable chance to restructure, with TDB Restructuring Limited as monitor. It had lost its previous financial advisor to a conflict of interest about a week before; TDB had been retained for a week, and its draft report, Myers J. wrote, "parrots the evidence of Lion Force in the main," per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, paras. 22–27.

The plan was to sell the head office, put fewer trucks on the road, raise truck utilization from 86% to over 90%, and cut costs, and the cash-flow forecast showed the company's fortunes improving by about week 15. Lion Force argued that its ability to offer buyers of the land a leaseback made a sale by it preferable to a sale by a receiver; Myers J. called that "its strongest point in my view." To the argument that a receiver's sale would be a fire sale, he answered: "I know of no empirical support for the idea that a sale of land for many tens of millions of dollars yields less proceeds when conducted by a receiver than by management," per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, paras. 28, 30–32.

The forecasts called for a $2 million DIP advance that week, fresh money going in above the bank's security; in submissions, Mr. Ward, for Lion Force, said, in the endorsement's account, that his clients had "sharpened their pencils" and needed only $600,000 to $700,000 in the first 10 days, though the draft order and cash flows still showed $2 million. The forecasts also assumed sub-tenant rent of $50,000 a month rising to $100,000, which Myers J. called "aspirational." Lion Force wanted authority to pay pre-filing claims of carriers and others with the monitor's agreement, without naming the payees or capping the amount, and an order enjoining carriers from speaking to its customers, per the Endorsement, May 15, 2026, paras. 36–37, 43–45, 51.