Canada: Corporate and Company Law

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP provides legal expertise across multiple practice areas including fund formation, competition law, antitrust, foreign investment, and venture capital. The firm's Toronto-based partners offer specialized counsel to clients navigating complex regulatory and transactional matters. Contact information and professional backgrounds are available for key team members specializing in these areas.

I hear some version of this from general counsel more often every year: they don't blindly trust their outside firm anymore, they verify it, the same way they verify every other vendor with access to their data. That shift catches a lot of firms off guard. Lawyers see themselves as trusted advisors, but procurement and legal ops teams see a law firm as one more party holding sensitive information. To them, that means proof, not just a handshake.

Canadian business owners increasingly ask whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins and other crypto-assets should be purchased personally or through a corporation. The question commonly arises where an operating company has accumulated retained earnings and the owner-manager does not need to withdraw all of those funds for personal spending.

Starting August 13, 2026, certain companies engaged in industrial activities deemed high-risk will be subject to minimum fines ten times higher in the event of a violation of the Environment Quality Act (EQA). This reform is part of a broader trend aimed at strengthening the deterrent effect of environmental sanctions and encouraging companies to ensure their compliance with applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.

On July 29, 2026, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) and the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published joint Staff Notice 81-339 – Industry Practices Relating to Foreign-Listed Exchange-Traded Funds (the Foreign ETF Notice).

À compter du 13 août 2026, certaines entreprises exerçant des activités industrielles jugées à risque élevé s'exposent à des amendes minimales dix fois plus élevées en cas d'infraction à la Loi sur la qualité de l'environnement (LQE). Cette réforme s'inscrit dans une tendance plus large visant à renforcer l'effet dissuasif des sanctions environnementales et inciter les entreprises à s’assurer de leur conformité aux exigences législatives et réglementaires applicables.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled on when not-for-profit corporations can modify their membership criteria and what standards courts apply when reviewing such governance decisions.

A recent Ontario court decision has clarified the interaction between sections 17 and 103 of the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010, confirming that certain by-law amendments require member confirmation by special resolution. This interpretation provides important guidance for organizations amending their by-laws, helping them determine whether proposed changes require member confirmation by ordinary or special resolution.

Depuis le lancement de ChatGPT d’OpenAI à la fin de 2022, l’intelligence artificielle (IA) est rapidement passée d’une technologie faisant l’objet de projets pilotes expérimentaux à un levier opérationnel essentiel pour de nombreuses sociétés ouvertes.