“ESG” stands for Environment, Social and Governance and describes a handful of criteria used by both issuers and investors to focus on a corporation’s impact and activity regarding topics like environmental protection, climate change, support for the local and global community, diversity in hiring and advancement, and employee compensation.
This investment methodology, once considered novel, has moved into the mainstream. Institutional investors in particular have been vocal in expressing their belief that maximizing returns to shareholders can no longer be a corporation’s only goal, and are increasingly focused on evaluating company performance against ESG key performance indicators in order to … Continue Reading
With the growing accessibility of “do-it-yourself” investment technology, it should come as no surprise that retail investing has been on the rise. In fact, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) recently published a 
On February 23, 2021, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) released its reasons in ESW Capital, LLC, 2021 ONSEC 7 (the ESW Decision), in which the OSC considered the availability of an exemption from the minimum tender requirement for takeover bids. The ESW Decision dismissed the proposed bidder’s application for exemptive relief, but provided important clarifications on the analytical framework applicable to this type of application.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a troubling report, highlighting the irreversible consequences of climate change on humanity. This study is simply adding to the pressures set forth by governments and other entities such as the Task Force on Climate Change-Related Financial Disclosure (TFCD) and BlackRock to hold corporations more responsible for their ecological footprint. Public issuers must be attentive to such environmental concerns as sound environmental practices, strong corporate governance relating to environmental matters, and accountability regarding environmental footprints are each well-recognized trends becoming more prevalent for companies and their respective shareholders. These … 
After nearly two years since the recreational cannabis industry has been in operation, we are seeing a rise in securities class actions and regulatory activity relating to cannabis companies. Since legalization, the growth of the sector has been fast and furious. The initial excitement and high investor interest has been recently overshadowed by compliance breaches at Canadian cannabis issuers coupled with market volatility fueling event-based securities litigation.
