Articles on Litigation - Securities

WHEN A PROPOSED MERGER between Canadian online gambling company Amaya Inc. and UK betting giant William Hill fell apart last week, larger questions were raised about the sale or merger prospects of any company whose former senior management has been accused of securities violations. Whether it ...

US appeal court clarifies definition under anti-corruption laws but fails to provide a “bright line” test Until relatively recently, neither Canadian nor US courts have shed much light on what constitutes a “foreign official” under the countries' respective ...

Standard directors' and officers' insurance may not be enough if the unthinkable happens It’s natural for first-time corporate directors to be flattered when a major company comes courting their services. They should rather be wary, bordering on suspicious, experienced ...

Litigators are raising concern over increased cross-border cooperation powers for regulators A recent amendment to the Ontario securities regime that allows the province’s regulator to quietly disclose information across borders is a troubling development in Canadian securities enforcement, ...

In its January 2014 decision in Hryniak v. Mauldin , the Supreme Court of Canada provided what it hoped would be a road map for faster, less costly, more streamlined adjudication of civil actions through greater use of summary proceedings. While some commentators have lauded the ruling as ...

The Ontario Securities Commission’s decision to open the door to no-contest settlements means officers and directors of publicly listed companies accused of securities violations may be able to cut a deal with regulators without admitting they did anything wrong. The move is popular with ...

Canada is slowly shedding its image of being soft on fraud and white-collar crime There has been a longstanding perception that Canada is soft on fraud and white-collar crime, both domestically and internationally. A number of recent government initiatives, however, suggest that may no longer be ...

ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS, ideally, are worthy alternatives to the courts because of the subject expertise and procedural efficiency they provide. Increasingly, however, tribunals have themselves become bogged down in a torrent of documents and motions. Some have recently launched initiatives ...

Ordinarily news that a Toronto-area man settled with the Ontario Securities Commission for acting on a tip that returned a 635-per-cent profit would seem unexceptional. Except Anand Hariharan is not involved with a reporting issuer in Ontario, and he is not a financial adviser. He is an aircraft ...

The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in AIC Limited v. Fischer is best known for the proposition that plaintiffs who have received settlements in regulatory proceedings (in this case, Ontario Securities Commission proceedings) are not necessarily precluded from bringing class actions ...

COMPLICATING SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in AIC Limited v. Fischer is best known for the proposition that plaintiffs who have received settlements in regulatory proceedings (in this case, Ontario Securities Commission proceedings) are not necessarily ...

The Ontario Securities Commission, in its reasons for the recent Eco Oro decision, chastises the Toronto Stock Exchange for approving a private placement that uses questionable tactics meant to block a proxy challenge. Boards of listed companies that find themselves the objects of unwelcome ...

A pair of decisions on shareholder rights plans by two securities regulators have cast light on how so-called “poison pills” will be dealt with in the lead-up to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ newly proposed takeover bid regime. The late November decision by the Alberta ...

In a less than stellar year for business, only the decisions relating to privilege, certification and leave can be seen as decidedly positive in our Top Ten Cases of 2015 list. Canada’s courts delivered body blows to several other issues It was decidedly not a banner year for business in ...

ONTARIO TO AMEND LIMITATION FOR STATUTORY SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS In September 2014, the Ontario government announced that it would amend the provisions governing the existing three-year limitation period for obtaining leave to proceed with statutory securities class actions. Currently, the ...

Plaintiffs seeking leave to file secondary-market securities class actions in Canada will face a steeper incline than they have in the past. For this, they can thank the Supreme Court of Canada’s December decisions in a trilogy of securities class action cases: CIBC v. Green, Silver v. IMAX ...

After the disappointing jurisprudential results experienced by Canadian business in 2015, the landscape more than evened out this past year — which is not to say that Canadian appellate courts ignored anti-business arguments: while five of our top 10 business decisions can be regarded as ...

Courts in both the US and Canada seem intent on ensuring that their jurisdictions do not become havens for North American securities class actions. In August, the Second Circuit expanded the restrictions surrounding “foreign-cubed” securities lawsuits where foreign purchasers of ...

A recent memorandum of understanding between the federal Competition Bureau and the Ontario Securities Commission signals a trend towards increased information-sharing between regulators, although the enhanced cooperative effort will not necessarily lead to joint investigations. The distinction ...

COMPLICATING SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS According to the Bennett Jones Class Action Litigation Group: “In 2016, significant decisions were rendered in class proceedings that provide clarity on how Canadian courts intend to interact with each other, domestic and foreign litigants, and courts ...

Complicating Securities Class Actions The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in AIC Limited v. Fischer is best known for the proposition that plaintiffs who have received settlements in regulatory proceedings (in this case, Ontario Securities Commission proceedings) are not necessarily ...

It may surprise some people to learn just how closely the battle between US District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff and the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the no-contest settlement with Citigroup Global Markets was followed by Canada’s most influential market regulator. But when it ...

Securities class actions, which often have cross-border elements, are facing threats on a number of fronts in Canada Sinking share prices are leading shareholders on both sides of the border to launch proxy battles. But these days, in Canada, it is quite likely to be a US shareholder in the thick ...

Laws on director liability and foreign corruption are converging toward a common standard as business operations become more globalized, but there are still key differences in the law between Canada and the US Most corporate directors wouldn’t dream of making late-night forays down back ...

IN STARK COUNTERPOINT to the predilections of the current US president — who makes great use of Twitter as a medium — the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) say their reality more or less excludes social media. To be fair, the CSA has its own Twitter account and explicitly ...

Complicating Securities Class Actions According to the Bennett Jones Class Action Litigation Group: “In 2016, significant decisions were rendered in class proceedings that provide clarity on how Canadian courts intend to interact with each other, domestic and foreign litigants, and courts ...