Can a minority shareholder force a corporation to produce its financial records in litigation in Ontario?

Yes, in more than one way. Ontario corporate law already gives shareholders certain baseline rights to inspect specific corporate records, such as the articles, by-laws, minutes of shareholder meetings, and share registers, though access to more sensitive internal financial records, like detailed accounting records or board minutes, is more limited outside formal litigation. Where a corporation is refusing reasonable access and that refusal is itself part of a pattern of unfair treatment, withheld financial information is also commonly cited as part of an oppression claim, since a shareholder can't meaningfully assess whether they're being treated fairly without seeing how the business is actually being run.

Once litigation is underway, ordinary civil discovery obligations generally require the corporation to produce financial records relevant to the issues in dispute, regardless of what informal inspection rights existed beforehand - this is often the most effective way a minority shareholder actually obtains the detailed records needed to prove a claim. Because informal requests are sometimes refused or delayed, documenting your requests and the corporation's responses (or lack of them) is useful evidence both for the underlying claim and for any later dispute about production.