Update on Securities Class Action Exposures In Canada – Secondary Market Liability

Copyright 2008, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Securities Regulations/Class Actions, October 2008

The Canadian provinces, including those of Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and most recently, British Columbia, have enacted amendments to their respective Securities Acts to create civil liability for misrepresentation in disclosure documents and public oral statements together with failure to provide timely disclosure of material changes (please refer to our previous bulletins on Securities Law – November 2002, May 2003, February 2005, August 2005, November 2007 – which highlight and summarize that legislation).

Proceedings to Date

To date, there have been approximately a dozen of these actions which engage this new legislation. In addition, the Quebec decision in Nguyen et al v. CP Ships Limited was recently released which relied primarily upon civil law principles in Quebec, having been commenced prior to any Quebec secondary