University of Toronto Law School Faculty Blog

Jeffrey MacIntosh: "Pegged orders: an unfair trade"

This article was first published in the Financial Post on January 13, 2008.

In the old days, stock exchanges had a monopoly on trading listed stocks. Not any more. These days, electronic platforms known as “alternative trading systems” (ATSs) provide investors with a variety of trading forums. Some of these, like BlockBook, Liquidnet and MATCH Now, exist solely to cross large (mostly institutional) blocks of stock. But others, like Pure Trading, Alpha, Chi-X Canada and Omega, serve the entire investment community — trading some or all of the TSX and TSX-V listed stocks.

By introducing competition to stock trading, ATSs have already lowered the cost and increased the speed and efficiency with which stocks are traded. Nonetheless, the ATS phenomenon is still in its infancy in Canada — and so is the regulatory framework. While the regulatory apparatus mostly works very well, some recent trading practices have arisen that materially compromise the fundamental principles of price discovery and liquidity that lie at the very core of a modern trading system.

Lorraine E. Weinrib: Shooting down polygamy law not necessarily a slam dunk

The following commentary by Professor Lorraine Weinrib was published in the Toronto Star, January 13, 2009.

The attorney general of British Columbia has announced criminal prosecutions against two leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for breach of the Criminal Code prohibition against polygamy. The decision to prosecute follows years of deliberation on the appropriate response to harms attributed to polygamy as practised within the community in Bountiful, B.C.

Examination of some of the concerns raised in the media over the past week may provide some clarity as the prosecution proceeds.

Ben Alarie: Supreme Court of Canada's Decision in Lipson

Earlier today the Supreme Court of Canada released its judgment in the Lipson case (about which I blogged earlier here).  The Court was sharply divided, 4-3, in favour of dismissing the taxpayer's appeal from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal.

The Lipsons engaged in a series of transactions over two days in 1994 in which they made use of various rules, including the spousal rollover rule (section 73), the spousal attribution rule (section 74.1), and the back-to-back loans rule (subsection 20(3)), to transform what would otherwise have been non-deductible mortgage interest under paragraph 20(1)(c) into, they argue, deductible interest under paragraph 20(1)(c).

The facts are as follows...

Ernest Weinrib: A betrayal of the teaching profession

Sid Ryan, the President of CUPE Ontario has re-launched a campaign to boycott Israeli academics and ban them from doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities.  About a year and half ago, in response to similar initiatives undertaken by Britain's University and College Union, our colleague Prof. Ernest Weinrib wrote the following inspirational piece.  The British proposal was a disgrace then; the Canadian proposal is a disgrace now. 

This commentary was first published in the National Post on June 8, 2007.  With Prof. Weinrib's permission, I reproduce it below.