Canada's top securities regulator holds a roundtable today in Toronto on a proposal to protect — and pay — corporate whistleblowers who report fraud, bogus accounting and insider trading.
But the Ontario Securities Commission informant protection proposal will be more restrictive and stingy than programs in the United States that have prompted high-profile prosecutions and payouts in the tens of millions of dollars, including a $104-million award paid to a former UBS Swiss bank employee.
OSC Commissioner Mary Condon will meet with lawyers and investor groups to discuss the proposed "Framework for an OSC Whistleblower Program" that takes inspiration directly from the "apparent successes" of U.S. regulators who pay tipsters for information to boost their crackdowns on financial crimes.
In Canada, recent high-profile corporate corruption cases, including an RCMP probe of Toronto mining company MagIndustries and the foreign bribery prosecutions involving SNC Lavalin, were sparked by whistleblowers who wrote anonymous letters or leaked company misdeeds to the media — not regulators or police — because of fears of being revealed.
The OSC wants to change that.
Although the goal is to better protect whistleblowers' identities, Ontario's regulator might not be able to guarantee full anonymity once a case reaches court. That's unlike the U.S. situation, where SEC whistleblowers' identities have statutory protections.
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