Jan. 23, 2023 – Partner Sarah Elharrar and Associate Stephen Dalby interviewed two leaders in Toronto’s Venture Capital space, Matthew Golden and Matthew Leibowitz, on the future of Venture Capital (VC) investing in Canada. Golden is the founder and managing partner at Golden Ventures , a leading seed-stage...
Venture Capital and Growth Companies
Ignore at Your Own Risk: OSC Accuses Crypto Exchange Poloniex of Disregarding Securities Laws
June 04, 2021 – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently made good on its promise to hold crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) operating in Ontario accountable for failing to comply with Ontario securities laws. In a hard-hitting statement of allegations issued on May 25, 2021, the OSC initiated...
Modernizing Canada’s Retail Payments Ecosystem: Draft Retail Payments Activities Act Introduced
June 01, 2021 – The year 2020 will be remembered as a watershed for many reasons, including being the year that the world was forced to move online to an extent never seen before. Online commerce rose to stratospheric levels in 2020 – Amazon’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2020 showed that it was the...
Time to Talk: CSA Threatens Enforcement Against Unregistered Crypto Trading Platforms
Apr. 15, 2021 – The regulation of crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) has been a recent focus of Canadian securities regulators, due in part to the popularity of crypto assets among new investors, high profile failures of Canadian CTPs and the heightened risks related to the loss and theft of crypto assets. Yet...
CRA Turns Its Focus to Cryptocurrency Transactions
Apr. 13, 2021 – The Federal Court (FC) recently authorized the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to issue an “unnamed persons requirement” (UPR) to Coinsquare Ltd. for information and documentation relating to users of Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency exchange operating in Canada. This UPR is part of an on-going CRA...
Electronic Signatures: A Guide for Ontario Businesses
Mar. 04, 2021 – As we approach the one-year mark for the many Canadians working remotely, executing commercial agreements through electronic means has become “the new normal.” This bulletin provides a brief overview of the current framework in Ontario governing electronic documents and electronic execution of such...
Montréal: North America’s Video Gaming Studio Metropolis
Feb. 17, 2021 – In this article originally published in Tax Notes International , Davies lawyers Michael Kandev and Olivia Khazam review Montréal’s generous provincial tax incentives for video game industry developers and investors, as well as some of the principal tax issues related to mergers and...
Where Things Stand: Update on the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020
Dec. 22, 2020 – In our November 20 privacy update , we flagged key elements of Bill C-11, the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020 , a bill that was introduced on November 17, 2020 by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains. Bill C-11 had one day of debate on second reading, on...
Early Warnings: Canada’s Regulators Issue Warning Letters to Mobile App Companies
Dec. 18, 2020 – In late November, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and the Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced the issuance of 36 warning letters to various mobile app companies in Canada. The letters are reported to...
New Privacy Law for Canada: Government Tables the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020
Nov. 20, 2020 – With dramatic growth in the global data economy, and increased reliance on online activity as a result of the global pandemic, protection of privacy and personal information has never been as relevant as it is now. Like many other jurisdictions, Canada has recognized the need for a significant...
Canada’s Top Court Provides Guidance on SLAPPs
Sept. 21, 2020 – Overview Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are lawsuits that are intended not to seek justice, but instead to intimidate and silence critics. Regardless of the merits of its underlying claim, a well-heeled plaintiff is often able to drag the critic through costly and...
The Times They Are A Changin’ Canadian Privacy Law in the Private Sector
Sept. 18, 2020 – When privacy laws for the private sector were in their infancy in Canada, more than 20 years ago, there was no Internet of Things, Facebook was FaceMash and limited to the Harvard campus, and Google was a toddler. In 2020 there are on average 4 billion Google searches a day, Facebook has more than...
Supporting Canadian Startups: BDC Launches $150-Million Bridge Financing Program
Apr. 23, 2020 – BDC Capital (BDC) announced on April 9, 2020, that it is launching the BDC Capital Bridge Financing Program, an investment matching program designed to support Canadian startups impacted by COVID-19. The program will allow BDC to match up to an aggregate of $150 million in current financing rounds...
COVID-19: What Private Fund Managers Need to Know Now
Mar. 24, 2020 – The COVID-19 pandemic will affect managers of private funds in several ways. The nature and extent to which any particular fund manager is affected by COVID-19 will depend on many factors, including the type of fund, the investor base of the fund and whether the fund is currently being marketed...
Small Mergers Loom Large on Canadian Competition Bureau’s Radar
Sept. 30, 2019 – Canada’s Competition Bureau is actively seeking and reviewing smaller acquisitions that may not exceed pre-merger notification thresholds under the Competition Act but that may nonetheless raise substantive competition issues. The Bureau’s demonstrated interest in evaluating smaller mergers...
CSA to Pursue Six Initiatives to Cut “Red Tape” for Reporting Issuers
Mar. 28, 2018 – The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) will be initiating six policy projects aimed at reducing regulatory burdens for non-investment fund reporting issuers. The projects include: reviewing potential alternative prospectus models; facilitating at-the-market (ATM) offerings; ...
OSC Invites TokenFunder to Play in the CSA Sandbox
Oct. 26, 2017 – Earlier this month, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released its decision to grant exemptive relief from applicable Canadian registration requirements to Token Funder Inc. (TokenFunder) for the launch of its initial offering of FNDR tokens. By blessing the upcoming offering by TokenFunder...
Cooling the Blockchain Boom: CSA Staff Narrow the Path for Cryptocurrency Offerings
Sept. 07, 2017 – Cryptocurrency users take note – Canadian securities laws may apply, and regulators are paying attention. On August 24, 2017, the Canadian Securities Administrators released strong guidance on how securities regulators will view and regulate cryptocurrency offerings, also known as initial coin or...
July 28, 2017 – This week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published an investigative report 1 confirming what many in the blockchain industry had long anticipated: depending on the facts, the offer and sale of blockchain tokens pursuant to an initial coin offering (ICO) “may be” subject to...
