Preface to the third edition

• Author: Christopher C. Nicholls
• Profession: Faculty of Law, Western University
• Pages: 23-25

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PR EFACE

to the Third Edition

The third edition of this book was written duri ng the COVID-19 pan-

demic that began in March 2020. The many lives lost to t he disease will

continue to be the cruellest legacy of the pandemic. The isolation and

many other genuine and undeniable sacri f‌ices imposed on the general

population by lengthy lockdowns seem modest indeed when weighed

against the pain and loss suered by victims of the most severe infec-

tions and by the families and friends of those victims.

In the face of a worldwide public health crisis, w riting a book on

securities regu lation seems decidedly non-urgent. But threats to investor

protection and the robustness and stabil ity of the capital markets did not

halt during the pandem ic, nor did regulatory activ ity. Notable securities

regulatory developments since the second edition include: the stalled

initiatives aimed at trying to cre ate a national cooperative capital m ar-

ket regulatory system in Can ada; the impact of the 2021 Capital Markets

Modernization Taskforce Report; changes i ntroduced in Ontario by the

Securities Commission Act, 2021; inf‌luential developments in US secur-

ities law and regulat ion; and the ongoing challenges posed by i ncreasing

shareholder activism and technological advances, including the reg u-

latory challenges posed by cryptocurrencies and other digit al assets.

The same period also w itnessed one of the most signif‌icant develop-

ments in the Canad ian securities regulatory regi me in a generation: the

Canadian Sec urities Administrators’ proposal to consolidate Ca nada’s

two national secur ities industry self-regulatory organiz ations (SROs):

the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)