CIVIL ENFORCEMENT IN CANADIAN SECURITIES LAW

Private enforcement of securities laws enhances incentives for issuers and other market participants to comply with their statutory and regulatory obligations, especially their disclosure obligations. Assessing the effectiveness of a jurisdiction's private securities law enforcement regime requires not only quantitative evaluations of enforcement intensity, but also a nuanced consideration of the qualitative institutional context within which the jurisdiction's enforcement regime has developed and operates. This article contextualises the regime for civil enforcement of securities law in Canada, focusing principally on statutory civil liability for continuous disclosure violations. The development of this statutory remedy, its apparent strengths and acknowledged weaknesses are considered not only within the context of Canadian public enforcement mechanisms, but also within a broader institutional context, including an examination of complementary developments relating to class actions and lawyers' contingency fees and key shareholder-friendly provisions of Canadian corporate law.