'Responsive' Securities Regulation : An Assessment of the Enforcement Practices of the Ontario Securities Commission

This paper is intended, first, to provide a brief overview of the history and some central principles of securities regulation in Canada. Second, this paper will focus specifically on the enforcement efforts of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). I center my analysis on the theoretical framework provided by Ian Ayres and John Braithwaite in their book "Responsive Regulation" (1992). In addition, significant expert reports, statistics, legislation and media sources are used to develop the argument that the OSC is hindered in its enforcement mandate, ultimately, from a lack of credibility. Based on this conclusion, I have made four recommendations designed to help build confidence in the OSC as an effective regulator. These prescriptions are a synthesis of those made by the sources surveyed for this paper