The Growing Storm around the Creation of a National Securities Regulator:
Experts at the Faculty of Law Weigh In on Complex Issue, Panel Report
The global economic crisis has brought the regulation and enforcement of the financial markets under unprecedented scrutiny, with investors insisting on greater accountability and the federal government renewing the push for a single securities regulator.
Last week, the Expert Panel on Securities Regulation, appointed by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty 10 months ago, released its final report. Citing the fact that Canada is the only developed country in the world that does not have an overarching regulatory body responsible for overseeing capital markets, the Report recommended the implementation of a single, national securities regulator. The new regulatory regime would be based on uniform objectives, guiding principles of regulatory conduct and a single securities Act.
While Ontario and British Columbia support the creation of a single regulator, Alberta and Quebec remain opposed to the Report, arguing that the current passport system is sufficient and that a single body will intrude on the constitutional right and ability of individual jurisdictions to regulate their distinct capital markets. And with the Panel recommending the federal government take unilateral action to impose a new regulatory structure, following an opt-in transition period, some provinces are vowing to take the constitutional question to the Supreme Court.
What is the likelihood that the latest proposal for a national regulator will be implemented? What components of the plan are distinctive and essential to the workability of the model? Does the federal government have the constitutional authority to impose this model, albeit with an opt-in feature, on the provinces and territories? What would this model mean for the enforcement of securities regulation considering the recommendation of an independent adjudicative tribunal?
Join legal experts Peter Hogg, a special advisor to the Panel, and Jeremy Fraiberg, and professors Anita Anand and Jeffrey MacIntosh, who will lead a roundtable discussion at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law on this growing and complex debate.
When: Friday, January 30, 2009, 12:30 - 2 p.m.
Where: Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 84 Queen's Park, Solarium
Contact: RSVP to Cathy Alzner: associatedean.law@utoronto.ca
Speakers:
Anita Anand
Professor Anand is an Associate Professor and currently serves as Associate Dean (JD Program) at the Faculty of Law. In 2006, she was a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Olin Scholar in Law and Economics at Yale Law School. During the Fall 2005, she was a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School where she taught comparative corporate governance. Professor Anand has conducted research for the Five Year Review Committee, the Wise Person's Committee, and the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada. She is the Editor of Canadian Law Abstracts, published by the Legal Scholarship Network, and the President of the Canadian Law and Economics Association.
Jeremy D. Fraiberg
A partner in the Business Law Department in the Toronto office of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Jeremy Fraiberg focuses on corporate and securities law, with a particular emphasis on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. He was a senior policy advisor to the "Wise Persons' Committee" appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Government of Canada to recommend the best securities regulatory system The Committee's report "It's Time" was released in December, 2003.
For several years, Mr. Fraiberg taught a course on contested mergers and proxy contests at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and has also been a guest lecturer on venture capital financing.
Peter W. Hogg
Mr. Hogg is the author of Canada's leading textbook on constitutional law and is currently the Scholar in Residence at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Mr. Hogg was also a special advisor on the Expert Panel on Securities Regulation. Educated at the University of New Zealand and Harvard Law School, he taught in New Zealand and Australia. He became a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1970 and later served as Dean of the Law School from 1998 to 2003. Mr. Hogg has advised the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, other provincial governments, legislative committees, various public bodies, aboriginal organizations, and private law firms. He has appeared as counsel in a number of constitutional cases, including 13 cases in the Supreme Court of Canada.
Jeffrey MacIntosh
Professor MacIntosh holds the Toronto Stock Exchange Chair in Capital Markets Law at the Faculty of Law and is a past Associate Director and Director of the Capital Markets Institute at the University of Toronto. He holds law degrees from Harvard and Toronto, and a bachelor of science degree from M.I.T. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Professor MacIntosh served as an assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. He was appointed a John M. Olin Fellow at Yale Law School in 1988-89. He also served as a member of the Ontario Securities Commission Task Force on Small Business Financing.
