Public Policy and Judicial Discourse: Observations on Dialogue with the Court through the Securities Reference Decision (2011)

• Author: Lawrence E. Ritchie
• Pages: 305-316

• 305

 

Public Policy and Judicial Discourse:

Observations on Dialogue with the

Court through the Securities Reference

Decision (2011)

Lawrence E. Ritchie

1

Since the inception of securities regulation in Canada, the sub-

ject matter has been regulated as a matter of “property and civil

rights” by the provinces and territories, pursuant to section 92 of

the Constitution Act, 1867.2 Nevertheless, for more than seventy-

        

with the national dimensions of securities regulation within this

historical context. Beginning with the 1935 Royal Commission

on Price Spreads, more than a dozen major proposals have been

made for a Canadian securities regulator.3 Calls for a national

1 With the valuable contribution of Lorne Kotler. Adapted from comments

made at “What Next for Canada?: A Roundtable on Securities Regulation

in Canada,” held on 30 January 2012, and jointly hosted by the Univer-

sity of Toronto Faculty of Law and Torys LLP. The views of the author do



government .

  Reference

Re Securities Act, 2011 SCC 66 [Securities Reference].

3 See e.g. Report of the Royal Commission on Price Spreads (Ott awa:

King’s Printer, 1935); Royal Commission on Banki ng and Finance, Re-

port of the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance (Ottawa: Queen’s

Print er, 196 4); Report of the Attorney General’s Committee on Securi-

ties Legislation in Ontario ( Toronto: Queen’s Printer, 1965); Ontario

Securities Commission, “CANSEC: L egal and Administrative Concepts”

(November 1967), OSCB 61; Philip Anisman, “ The Proposals for a Secur-



Hall LJ 329 [1979 Proposals]; Report of the Royal Commission on the