On January 30, 2025, the Quebec Court of Appeal rendered its first ever decision addressing the exemption of business practices and contracts regarding transactions governed by the Québec Derivatives Act or Securities Act from the application of the Consumer Protection
Securities litigation and enforcement
Latest from Securities Litigation and Enforcement
Carbon Credits Manipulation : An Increased Scrutiny Over Fraud in a Booming Industry Could Cross the Canadian Border
A fraudulent scheme orchestrated over several years by one of the world’s largest carbon credits project developers raises major concerns about the integrity of corporate sustainability commitments while highlighting the importance of good corporate governance and timely self-disclosure.
Because Canadian…
A moral obligation to self-disclose a corporate wrongdoing: what does it entail for solicitor-client privilege?
Corporations generally have an increasing burden to improve their social initiatives, environmental impact as well as accountability towards all third parties. Recently, the courts in Canada have rendered decisions that further increase the responsibilities of corporations in an area involving…
False or Misleading Public Statements Made by Reporting Issuers in the Tech Industry
Earlier this year, the Ontario Capital Markets Tribunal (the Tribunal), accepted a joint settlement agreement[1] submitted by Staff of the Ontario Securities Commission (Staff) and defendant Raymond Pomroy (Pomroy), who had been accused of making false or misleading statements…
Acceleration of Regulatory Scrutiny Towards Crypto Assets Trading Platforms
In the last year, Québec’s Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (the TMF) has emphasized that crypto asset trading platforms must comply with all applicable securities and derivatives regulations. Otherwise, in accordance with the TMF’s mission to protect the public and to…
Quebec’s Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal imposes exemplary penalties and sanctions on individuals who committed insider trading violations in the midst of a going-private transaction
In Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) c. Gauthier,[1] Quebec’s Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (TMF) ruled that Philippe Gauthier (Gauthier) and Frédéric Racine (Racine) committed insider trading violations on the basis of privileged information related to the acquisition of Napec…
The Supreme Court of Canada provides needed clarity on the discharge (or survival) of Securities Commission-imposed sanctions in personal bankruptcy
Between February 2020 and January 2022, we authored three blog posts about whether Securities Commission-imposed administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) and disgorgement orders should be discharged in personal bankruptcies.
Those prior blog posts are linked here: February 6, 2020, March…
In-House Insider Trading
In light of the unprecedented shift to a “working-from-home-economy” due to the pandemic, employees need to be extremely careful with work-related information that can accidentally be shared with their household. Confidential or even material non-public information can involuntarily be shared…
Insider trading: the U.S. SEC’s “shadow trading” doctrine and its potential impacts in Canada
On April 5, 2024, in the case of the SEC v. Panuwat (Panuwat),[1] the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) convinced a jury for the very first time of its “shadow trading” doctrine, according to which insider trading…
Fibrek Quebec Court of Appeal Highlights Importance of Market Prices in Dissent Right Valuation Proceedings
On February 2, 2024, the Quebec Court of Appeal issued its unanimous decision reducing the fair value of the Fibrek shares by 20% and emphasizing the importance of market prices in determining fair value.
Overview of the main facts discussed…