Investor Presentaiton
In addition, other types of protection are available when securities laws are breached in
Québec and in other provinces and territories, This entails actions that are more complex
than the compensation mechanisms, and which often require the intervention of securities
authorities. Inspired in large part by the prerogatives offered under Article 308 of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States, these remedies enable courts to order the person
or company in violation to compensate an injured person or company.
Lastly, most securities brokerage firms take out loss insurance to compensate clients who
could be victims of fraudulent practices at the hand of financial advisors.
3.3.3 Recent developments in investor compensation: civil remedies on secondary
markets
Ontario recently added provisions to its legislation 20 allowing investors to claim damages,
mainly for being given false, misleading or spotty information. Investors can now sue the
companies and other key parties (directors, officers, and experts) when the information is
false or misleading or when the required information is not disclosed in the companies'
published documents.
British Columbia has also inserted a civil liability regime for the secondary market in its new
securities legislation, which has not yet entered into force. Other provinces (Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) are expected to submit bills to
their respective legislatures that draw heavily from the new provisions adopted in Ontario.
In Québec, Autorité des marchés financiers is now analyzing the Ontario law to ascertain the
feasibility of importing this reform to Québec's secondary markets.
20 Namely, the new Part XXIII.1 of Ontario's Securities Act entitled Civil Liability for Secondary
Market Disclosure (sections 138.1 to 138.14).
Consultation paper
Page 17View entire presentation