Several legislative amendments have taken effect in Ontario, introducing new insider trading and market manipulation offences, among other things.

Earlier this month, the budget bill received royal assent, and legislative amendments have since taken effect, including amendments to both securities and derivatives legislation to prohibit attempts at fraud and market manipulation, not just successful frauds or manipulations.

Both sets of legislation were also amended to permit the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to “make an order without notice authorizing the disclosure of certain information to law enforcement and regulatory agencies.”

In addition, the rules about insider trading and tipping in the securities legislation were revised to alter the definition of a “person or company in a special relationship with a reporting issuer” to include people or companies that are considering whether to make a takeover bid, or enter into an arrangement with the reporting issuer.

That change comes in the wake of an enforcement case last year where the OSC found that a corporate insider didn’t actually breach securities laws when trading with the knowledge that his company was considering a possible takeover bid, although a bid wasn’t imminent. In that case, the commission found that the trading nevertheless violated the public interest.