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ARTICLE · 03 NOVEMBER 2005

A New World of Public Company Exposure

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
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By the time this article has gone to print, one of the most significant changes in Canadian securities laws in many years will have come into effect. The new secondary market civil liability regime, which will facilitate shareholder class actions, will have been proclaimed in force on December 31, 2005.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Douglas Worndl
Douglas Worndl
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Changes to Securities Law will generate new exposures and challenges for public companies, their officers, directors, advisors and insurers.

By the time this article has gone to print, one of the most significant changes in Canadian securities laws in many years will have come into effect. The new secondary market civil liability regime, which will facilitate shareholder class actions, will have been proclaimed in force on December 31, 2005.

The "Bill 198" amendments to the Ontario Securities Act permit investors to sue public companies for investment losses where there has been a misrepresentation in a company’s public disclosure, or a company has failed to report a material change to its business in a timely manner, even if the investors did not rely on or were not even aware of the company’s inaccurate disclosure. Until this new change in our law, it has been necessary for investors to establish "actual reasonable reliance" on the misrepresentation in order to maintain suit for

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