Courts Ordered To Defer To Ontario Securities Commission Rulings

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

02 February 2005

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) received a boost recently when the province's Court of Appeal upheld a trading ban that the Commission had imposed for insider trading.

According to reports in the national media, in 2002 an OSC panel banned former head of Yorkon Securities, Pier Donnini from the market for 15 years, following insider trading activity undertaken in 2000. He was also ordered to pay $186,052 in costs.

Mr Donnini appealed the case at the Ontario Divisional Court, which reduced the ban to four years, and ordered the Commission to reconsider the costs that it had awarded.

In November, the OSC announced that it intended to appeal the Divisional Court ruling, a move which has now resulted in the reinstatement of the 15 year ban.

The Ontario Court of Appeal reportedly went further, ordering other courts to afford the Securities Commission's rulings a "high level of deference" because of its long experience in securities matters.

However, the $186,052 costs were reportedly sent back to the OSC to be reconsidered.

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