Canada: Corporate Governance

The British Columbia Securities Commission's 2025 compliance report reveals persistent deficiencies in policies and procedures manuals, know-your-client processes, and client reporting across registered firms. With Client Focused Reforms now in effect for over three years, the report highlights critical gaps in operationalizing compliance requirements and introduces new considerations for firms using artificial intelligence in their operations.

Jennifer Longhurst examines the evolving landscape of shareholder activism in Canada, exploring why large-cap companies face different activist dynamics than their smaller counterparts...

When a publicly traded corporation contractually commits to advancing defense costs to its directors, can it refuse payment by alleging bad faith and demanding a preliminary evidentiary hearing? The Quebec Court of Appeal will now address this central question in corporate governance after granting leave to appeal a Superior Court decision that ordered Gildan Activewear to advance C$750,000 to ten former directors. This case examines the intersection of statutory indemnification provisions and mandatory con

When is the right time to begin preparing your business for transfer? Most owners wait until they feel ready to sell, but by then it's often too late. This article explores three critical areas of preparation that progress at different speeds and explains why successful business transitions begin years before an offer arrives.

Determining the scope of an internal investigation requires balancing thoroughness with proportionality while managing cost, timelines, and business disruption. This guide explores how to anchor scope in allegations, set defensible boundaries, and calibrate the investigation to match the actual risk involved.

Alternative practice structures (APS), already firmly established in the United States, are generating significant interest and activity in the Canadian market, particularly in regard to accounting firms.

Many First Nations have recently settled their agricultural benefits claim or are in the process of negotiating a settlement right now. How can they protect their settlement monies and ensure they benefit their communities for generations to come? One of the ways they can do this is to create a trust.

Directors will be forgiven for feeling like AI is “everything everywhere all at once”. Yes, our reference to the 2022 Oscar winning film is intentional. Like the movie, AI defies easy categorization. It can be equal parts exhilarating and hallucinatory, impressive and uncomfortable.

The Canadian Securities Administrators have proposed sweeping amendments to Canada's take-over bid, issuer bid and beneficial ownership reporting regimes that would fundamentally reshape how Canadian issuers repurchase their own securities and how market participants disclose their economic positions during contested transactions.