Desjardins Financial Security Services Inc. has been fined $200,000 and costs of $25,000 following a settlement agreement reached with the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada over its failure to conduct a reasonable supervisory investigation on one of its former representatives who misappropriated $3.7 million from several clients.
Criminal law
-
Desjardins Financial Security Services fined $200,000 by regulator
-
A third guilty plea in residential construction bid‑rigging scheme in Montreal
More than a decade after a tip led the Competition Bureau to conduct an investigation on eight Montreal-area companies suspected of rigging bids for private sector contracts, a Quebec numbered company specializing in the installation of ventilation systems was fined $140,000 fine after it plead guilty to one count of bid-rigging. -
Quebec yet again calls on Ottawa to appoint more judges
Days after the new president of the Quebec legal society said that the landmark Jordan ruling could “do us good if we could solve the problem,” Quebec Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée called on the federal government yet again to quickly appoint 10 new Superior Court justices in the province.Despite significant investments over the past six months by the Quebec government to curb delays in the criminal justice system, Quebec is still struggling as the number of Jordan-related requests for a stay of proceedings keeps on surging. The Quebec Director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) revealed that there were 684 Jordan applications as of March 23, 2017, a figure that has grown to 895 as of late May.
-
Four charged with lobbying offenses
A week after the Quebec Lobbyists’ Commissioner implored the provincial government to strengthen, expand and simplify the province’s lobby laws, and on the eve of his retirement, four lobbyists were charged with infringing the Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act.Tags: lobbying -
Court approves $2.5 million class action settlement agreement involving hockey coach
A $2.5 million class action settlement agreement reached between the victims of a former hockey coach and his employer, the City of Westmount, was approved by a Superior Court judge. -
Ottawa tech firms not guilty of bid-rigging
A group of Ottawa-based technology providers were found not guilty of 60 charges of bid-rigging and conspiracy to rig bids by a jury after an eight-month criminal trial in a case that provides guidance and brings greater clarity over the reach of Canadian bid-rigging laws. -
Quebec Crown requested 134 stays following Jordan ruling
Days after the head of the Quebec Crown testified before a National Assembly parliamentary commission over the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark Jordan ruling on the province’s criminal justice system, Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée tabled a bill that seeks to curb the amount of time cases take to filter through the courts. -
The charity, the businessman and the Montreal law firm that won
A charity and a businessman who sued a Montreal law firm caught in a tangled web of lawsuits after a former partner allegedly orchestrated a multi-million Ponzi scheme lost their case after Quebec Superior Court held that the lawsuits were groundless in a case that draws some light into a murky financial world.
-
Auto parts maker fined $13.4 million for bid-rigging offenses
In the second-largest fine ever ordered by a court in Canada for bid-rigging offenses, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice fined Mitsubishi Electric Corp. $13.4 million after it plead guilty to three counts of bid-rigging for participating in an international conspiracy, capping a fine week by the Competition Bureau. -
Crown blamed after judge stays murder case
The last time it happened a Superior Court Justice apologized.
“I am very sorry that the system has let you down,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett last November to the mother of the deceased after she threw out a first-degree murder case against former Canadian Forces soldier Adam Picard because of excessive delays. Picard was charged for the June 2012 killing of Fouad Nayel, a 28-year old construction worker who had been missing for five months. Picard was arrested less than a month after Nayel’s badly decomposed body was found in the woods.
In a bleak and withering assessment of the criminal justice system, Justice Parfett said that the justice system also failed “this accused and the public,” and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of Crown prosecutors for the unreasonable delays that hampered the case.
-
Nearly $8.8 million in monetary sanctions imposed in 2016 for Quebec securities offenses
When Judge Réna Émond of the Court of Québec imposed just before the Christmas holidays fines totaling $120,000 on Danny Gagné and ISpeedzone Inc. for illegal practice as a securities dealer, it wrapped up a good year for Quebec’s financial watchdog.Nearly $8.8 million in fines and administrative penalties were imposed on 158 individuals and firms in 2016 for various offences under laws administered by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), according to the latest enforcement report by the regulator. Of the $8.8 million in total monetary sanctions, $7.6 million involved securities or derivatives laws violations, with another $1 million stemming from Quebec’s Distribution Act. The report reveals that 15 offenders did more than 11,000 hours of compensatory work, with one offender choosing to pay his fines through a prison sentence of 729 days.
-
Jordan applications keep on rising
The numbers seem to be growing by the day. Ever since the Supreme Court of Canada issued its landmark Jordan ruling on July 2016, the pressure on the justice system seems to be growing. Not a day seems to go by without some horror story about some criminal being let off because of the new deadlines set by the nation’s highest court.Last July in R. v. Jordan 2016 SCC 27, the SCC criticized the country’s legal system for its “culture of complacency” and the ruling set out new rules for an accused’s right to be tried within a reasonable time frame. The Jordan decision laid down a ceiling of 30 months for matters before Superior Court cases to be completed. Provincial court trials should be completed within 18 months of charges being laid, but can be extended to 30 months if there is a preliminary inquiry.
The Quebec criminal justice is struggling to comply with the new rules, implicitly acknowledged the Quebec Minister of Justice Stéphanie Vallée when she announced the new investments last December.
Now there are hard figures to back up those concerns. The Quebec Director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) revealed recently that there are 684 Jordan applications as of March 23, 2017, a figure that has tripled in the space of three months. In November 2016, the number of Jordan applications stood at 222. A month later, just before Christmas, they numbered 368.
-
Quebec hires more judges and Crown prosecutors to curb delays
Arrested Under growing pressure to mitigate a growing backlog of cases in the criminal justice system, the Quebec government announced last December that it was going to pour $175.2 million over the next four years to recruit new judges, prosecutors and support staff to help curb mounting court delays.
Tags: criminal justice system -
Report urges overhaul of Quebec megatrials
A cultural change that emphasizes collaboration between all players of Quebec’s criminal justice system is the only way to ensure that costly and unwieldly megatrials do not end up in fiascos, according to a well-received comprehensive report on multi-defendant trials.The long-awaited 180-page report also urges the Quebec government to provide more resources to the province’s Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions (DPCP), recommends that Quebec crown prosecutors limit the number of accused and concentrate their efforts on criminals most involved in serious crimes, advises the creation of a permanent forum for stakeholders to share best practices, proposes that police and prosecutors take management training, and calls on judges to use the powers they have more effectively. All told, the report makes 51 wide-ranging recommendations.
Tags: criminal justice system -
U.S. authorities target individuals for corporation wrongdoings
Internal investigations are likely going to be more costly and more difficult to conduct for Canadian companies with operations in the United States following a change of policy by the U.S. Department of Justice that will now prioritize the prosecution of individual employees for civil and criminal corporate wrongdoing, according to anti-corruption and white collar criminal defence lawyers.
