Business Law Blog

Virtual shareholder meetings have become ubiquitous for both public and private companies since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian securities regulators, stock exchanges and federal and provincial governments quickly responded to accommodate electronic meetings where it was otherwise not permitted. In British Columbia, Ministerial Order No. M116 was ...

In the fall of 2015, the well-known corporate lawyer Martin Lipton issued a paper entitled Will a New Paradigm for Corporate Governance Bring Peace to the Thirty Years’ War. Focused on what were then widespread concerns about corporate short-termism and, more particularly, the effect of activist hedge funds on long-term corporate value, this article was a prelude to Mr ...

Every year, reporting issuers are faced with the task of tailoring the disclosure for their annual general meeting to an ever-evolving list of changes in corporate and securities laws, updates to stock exchange rules, new guidance from proxy advisors and regulators and developing corporate governance trends.

This checklist and overview of certain matters relevant to ...

Changes to corporate law allowing the creation of a “benefit company”, a form of corporation whose business, in addition to aiming to generate profits, promotes one or more public benefits, will come into force in British Columbia on June 30, 2020. The legislation, discussed in our June 2019 blog post and the first of its kind in Canada, allows new benefit companies to be ...

New Blanket Orders

The CSA have announced further temporary relief from certain regulatory filings:

• for non-investment fund issuers, a 45-day extension for periodic filings normally required to be made between June 2, 2020 and August 31, 2020; and

• for investment funds, a 60-day extension for periodic filings normally required to be made between June 2, 2020 and September ...

The 50^th Earth Day has passed this year under the shadow of a global pandemic, where the immediacy of human health has eclipsed, for now, the focus on the long-term health of the planet and humanity’s place within it that had begun to preoccupy businesses and investors. From a corporate governance perspective, that is reasonable, as risks to short-term survival take ...

Businesses across all industries and stages of growth are facing unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 crisis. In response, the federal and provincial governments in Canada are responding with an unprecedented combination of relief and stimulus programs for businesses aimed at minimizing layoffs, ensuring access to credit and liquidity, and deferring tax ...

Further to our blog post of March 19, 2020, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) granted temporary, blanket relief to market participants on March 23, 2020 from certain periodic filing requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The relief applies to issuers, investment funds, registrants, certain regulated entities, and designated rating ...

The emergence of COVID-19 and its sudden and significant impact on markets, businesses and the entire economy are uncharted waters for companies and their boards and managers. In the past two weeks in particular, businesses have had to rapidly address (i) personnel and customer health and safety; (ii) compliance with the health authority and other governmental ...

In light of the rapidly evolving developments relating to COVID-19, and recognizing that issuers have an urgent need to focus on critical business decisions, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the “CSA”) have announced that they will grant temporary, blanket relief from the filing of certain documents required to be filed on or before June 1, 2020.

Blanket ...