On July 8, 2016, the Ontario Securities Act (the Act) was amended to prohibit a person who possesses undisclosed material information from recommending trades or encouraging others to trade in securities of the issuer. The amendment is the latest in a series intended to close gaps in Ontario's insider trading rules.
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Despite a recent cooling in the overall investment climate, the number of active U.S. venture investors in Canada has more than doubled over the past five years.
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Modern finance chiefs have diverse professional backgrounds, meaning that accounting experience isn't always the path to becoming CFO.
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In light of the possibility of a Canada-wide postal strike starting as early as Saturday, July 2, 2016, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recommends that all stakeholders required to deliver materials to one of its members, as well as deliver documents to security holders, contact their local securities regulator or visit their local regulator's website for guidance regarding prescribed delivery obligations.
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In line with a global trend for greater transparency of payments made by companies in extractive industries to governments of resource-rich countries, the United States has joined Canada and the European Union in adopting "publish what you pay" rules for such companies. These rules are aimed at combatting corruption and promoting the accountability of these governments to their citizens.
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An emerging trend among public companies in the United States is to conduct their annual general meetings (AGMs) virtually through the use of remote meeting technologies, which enable some or all of the participants to attend electronically. With high-profile companies such as Comcast, Intel, Starbucks, Paypal, and Hewlett Packard having recently held virtual-only AGMs, we may soon see a similar acceptance of the online forum among Canadian companies. Recently, Lululemon (NASDAQ: LULU), a Delaware company based in Vancouver, conducted its AGM completely virtually, leading to local media coverage and a debate over the use of virtual AGMs.
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An increasing number of companies negotiating settlements with shareholders led to a material decrease in the number of shareholder proposals seeking proxy access in 2016, a new report said.
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Recent statements and papers from regulators and advisory firms suggest lack of compliance with non-GAAP accounting rules could be perceived as a significant regulatory risk.
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The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently published its Statement of Priorities for 2016-2017. The Statement of Priorities is published annually and offers stakeholders a glimpse into the OSC's goals and priorities for the upcoming year, including where the OSC intends to focus key resources and actions. A draft of the Statement of Priorities was published on March 10, 2016, in response to which the OSC received 23 comment letters that, with some exceptions, were broadly supportive of the OSC's overall direction.
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The Securities Act (Act) requires the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC or Commission) to deliver to the Minister of Finance by June 30th of each year a statement from the Commission setting out its priorities for its current financial year in connection with the administration of the Act, the regulations and rules, together with a summary of the reasons for the adoption of the priorities.
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