Catch and Exclude: The Ontario Court of Appeal reaffirms the Canadian approach to defining a “Security”

In late 2018, I wrote a summary of the Ontario Superior Court’s decision in OSC v Tiffin, 2018 ONSC 5419. In that case, a 6 month custodial sentence was imposed on a trader for trading in promissory notes despite being under a trading ban. Justice Charney ruled on whether to import the “family resemblance” test from US case law to determine whether a promissory notes amounted to a securities. Under that test, courts would use a contextual approach to determine if something constitutes a security. Ultimately the “family resemblance” test was not adopted into Canadian law. Instead, courts should rely ... [more] Full article
Securities regulators provide guidance to investors and market participants during COVID-19 pandemic
After an initial sharp downturn in the Spring of 2020, it would appear that the capital markets are the least of most people’s worries during the COVID-19 pandemic. But we ... [more] Full article
Has the OSC’s “special treatment” by appeal courts come to an end?
Appeals are usually an uphill battle for the party that loses at trial, but for more than two decades the hill has been even steeper for losing parties before the ... [more] Full article
Controversy as IIROC proposes merger with MFDA
In a publication released this month titled Improving Self-Regulation for Canadians, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (“IIROC”) has, among other things, proposed a merger of itself with another ... [more] Full article