Supreme Court Defers To Securities Commission On The Interpretation Of Limitation Periods In Secondary Proceedings

On December 5, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its much-anticipated decision in McLean v. British Columbia (Securities Commission)1,providing clarity on the limitation period applicable to "secondary proceedings" in the securities enforcement context. Specifically, the principal issue before the Supreme Court was when the 6-year limitation period under the B.C. Securities Act begins to run when one provincial securities regulator wishes to enforce the order of another - as of the date of the underlying misconduct or the date of the extra-provincial order? The BCSC argued that the event giving rise to the proceeding against McLean was not her original misconduct, but rather the fact of having agreed with a securities regulator to be subject to regulatory action. Writing for the majority, Justice Moldaver upheld the BCSC's order, finding that, on a standard of reasonableness, the interpretation advanced by the BCSC should be given deference.

Background

In 2008, the appellant Patricia McLean entered into a settlement agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC") in respect of misconduct that predated 2001. The salient parts of the resulting OSC order 2 (the "OSC Order") barred McLean from trading in securities for 5 years, and banned her from acting as an officer or director of certain entities registered under Ontario's Securities Act for 10 years. In 2010, the BCSC issued a reciprocal order adopting the same prohibitions of the OSC Order pursuant to s. 161(6)(d) of its Securities Act. McLean appealed the reciprocal order on the basis that the relevant limitation period had expired: s. 159 of the B.C. Securities Act provides that proceedings "must not be commenced more than 6 years after the date of the events that give rise to the proceedings".

The issue before the Supreme Court was whether, for the purposes of s. 161(6)(d) of the B.C. Securities Act, "the events" that trigger the 6-year limitation period in s. 159 was (i) the underlying misconduct that gave rise to the settlement agreement, or (ii) the settlement agreement itself. Under the former interpretation - advanced by McLean - the BCSC order would be statute-barred. If, however, the limitation period clock began to run on the date of the OSC Order (as the BCSC contended), the BCSC order would stand as the proceeding was commenced well within 6 years of the OSC Order.

Discussion

Moldaver J. first focused on the preliminary issue of the appropriate standard of...