Ford government decision is a step backward for investor protection

 

By Anita Anand

Globe and Mail September 25, 2018

The Ontario Securities Commission recently published a proposed rule banning certain commissions to dealers on mutual fund sales. The rule was not just Ontario’s initiative – it was a joint effort by members of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), which consists of regulators from all provinces and territories. After months of discussions, which included the consideration of empirical data, the CSA finally agreed on the need to restrict certain commissions, with each of its members agreeing to implement the rule in its home province or territory.

Then, to the surprise of many, Ontario Minister of Finance Vic Fedeli expressed the government’s disagreement with the rule, ignoring the statutory process for making laws relating to the capital markets in this province. The Minister’s approach presents three problems. First, it undermines the rule-making process that is embodied in statute and has been the law for more than 20 years. Second, it fails to appreciate the important investor protection concerns that the CSA identified and sought to address. Third, it creates uncertainty in the capital markets, which the government of the day should be loath to do.

Doug Ford can’t apply the notwithstanding clause retroactively to impede democracy

Originally published in the Globe and Mail.

Prof. Lorraine Weinrib was formerly the deputy director of Constitutional Law and Policy, Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario.

Politicians who are disappointed when constitutional rights frustrate their plans sometimes turn to the notwithstanding clause, thinking that it allows them to do anything they want. In this, they are mistaken.

The Supreme Court of Canada has held that the notwithstanding clause cannot operate retroactively. This ruling brings the override power in line with the rule of law – a pre-eminent constitutional principle. Persons are entitled to assume the continuity of their fundamental rights without worrying about retroactive government nullification.

No Time for Tinkering: On Intellectual Property and NAFTA

Last year, I wrote the following essay, as part of a collection of essays, "NAFTA and the Knowledge Economy", published by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The essay discusses what Canada’s approach to intellectual property in the context of the renegotiation of NAFTA should be. Since the issues are back at the table, I thought I'd post it again. You can read it on CIGI's website, download a pdf version, or simply scroll down.

No Time for Tinkering: How a "more progressive" NAFTA could break the vicious circle of global inequities in the ownership of knowledge

The postwar international trading order reflected the assumption that reducing various state-imposed restrictions on trade, and promoting free and competitive markets, would be mutually beneficial to trading nations and to the world as a whole.

Populist and Liberal Democracy

Populist and Liberal Democracy

Alan Brudner

 

                Many see the authoritarian bent of Donald Trump’s presidency as a threat to liberal democracy—not as great, perhaps, as the populist dictatorships of Poland, Hungary, and Russia, but certainly on the spectrum.  Those who hold this view typically contrast populist democracy with liberal democracy. Populist democracy is the personal rule of a leader who draws direct support from the masses.  Liberal democracy is the rule of laws authorized by the masses’ civic-minded representatives, administered by public servants, and endorsable by all subjects viewed as free and equal.

Enhancing Governance in Dual Class Share Firms

Enhancing Governance in Dual Class Share Firms

by Anita Anand

            In a typical public company, shareholders can elect the board, appoint the auditors, and approve fundamental changes.  In other words, they can participate in the governance of the firm. Firms with dual class shares (DCS) alter this balance by inviting the subordinate shareholders to carry the financial risk of investing in the firm without providing them with the corresponding power to elect the board and exercise other voting rights. I argue that this misalignment of rights and risks should be subject to three modest reforms in order to enhance governance in DCS firms.

            The rationale underlying DCS is that they allow firm founders to protect themselves against a loss of control,[1] thereby ensuring that they can implement a long-term corporate strategy notwithstanding  short-term market pressures.[2] But the central question must be asked: to what extent (and for how long) should the law allow the founders to pursue their “idiosyncratic vision” for the DCS corporation?[3] 

The Urgent Need to Reform Jury Selection after the Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case

A Saskatchewan jury’s acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the death of a 22 year old Cree man Colten Boushie has galvanized and polarized public opinion in Canada. Followed less than two weeks later by another jury acquittal in the death of 15 year old Anishinaabe girl Tina Fontaine, these cases raise troubling questions about whether Indigenous people can receive justice in the Canadian criminal justice system.

 

Colonialism and Systemic and Historical Racism

 

Both cases should be seen in light of systemic racism that has and continues to discriminate against Indigenous people both as accused and victims.  More than one in four prisoners in Canada are Indigenous.  Indigenous people, especially Indigenous women and girls, also experience significantly higher rates of crime than non-Indigenous persons.

 

Foreign Dark Money Taints Canadian Parliamentary Proceeding

In her New York Times bestselling book, Dark Money, Jane Mayer investigates the influence-peddling practices of the excessively wealthy class—e.g. Koch brothers—on US democratic institutions. She reveals, with a sense of alarm and foreboding, how corporate donors-cum-political ideologues have strategically purchased increasingly larger portions of the democratic deliberative process. Though located in the United States, these ideologues can extend their reach as far as money can buy, including across international borders, in Parliament and legislative assemblies here in Canada.

M103 Hearings and CPC Derailment

Access Copyright v. York University: An Anatomy of a Predictable But Avoidable Loss

Originally posted on Prof. Katz's blog, here.

Two weeks ago, Justice Phelan of the Federal Court handed Access Copyright a huge victory in its lawsuit against York University.[1] I have followed the case closely and read the parties’ submissions and I have been constantly concerned that York risked snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Unfortunately, this is what happened. The good news is that many of the Court’s fundamental findings rest on very loose foundations, that I am confident that York’s loss is only temporary, and that if York appeals the decision and handles the appeal appropriately, most, if not all, of the Court’s major findings will be reversed. One way or another, and possibly with interveners assisting the court, one hopes that all essential arguments will be made on appeal. Therefore, this post provides an anatomy of York’s predictable yet totally avoidable loss.

Of Elephants, Donkeys, and the U.S. Health Care Imbroglio

It is more than passingly ironic that the representative animals of American Republicans (the elephant) and Democrats (the donkey) are both the offspring of a 19th century cartoonist - Thomas Nash.  Were he alive today, Nash might have a great deal of fun depicting these two ungainly beasts attempting death defying arabesques, pivot turns and scissors leaps on the highly greased balance beam that is health care reform.  Both portly quadrupeds agree that Obamacare needs fixing.  But the nature of that fix remains the cause of a great deal of unhelpful snorting, grunting, and braying. 

Too bad they don’t realize that the key lies in appreciating a type of market failure known to economists and other pointy heads as “adverse selection”.  Prepare to be initiated. 

One of the overriding goals of Obamacare (and one ostensibly supported by both Republicans and Democrats) is to ensure that those with pre-existing medical conditions have access to affordable healthcare.  Under Obamacare, this is achieved by compelling insurers to lump those with pre-existing conditions into the same pool as those without – while charging everyone the same price.  This has resulted in what is effectively a government mandated market failure, whose outward manifestations are skyrocketing health care premiums and market withdrawals by multiple insurers.