Last Call For Relevant Appeals From The OSC

To the extent it was ever really open, the door to relevant appeals from decisions of the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC" or the "Commission") has inexorably been swinging closed. The presumption cultivated in the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada that the Commission engages its specialized expertise on all matters that come before it, has made an appeal an exercise in futility. The appellate courts in Ontario have made it clear that they are not enthusiastic about the prospect of reviewing, let alone overturning, a decision of the Commission on a matter within its presumed expertise. As the standard of a review on an appeal is now the deferential standard of "reasonableness" in practically all cases, it would take a disastrously bad decision for the courts to consider overturning a merits decision of the Commission. To date, the Commission has never been overturned on a merits decision.