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(November 19, 2007) The Alberta Securities Commission has slapped a cease trade order on a B.C. man which will not expire until October 17, 2026.

Douglas Arnold Clarke of Nanaimo, B.C. is also barred from acting as a director or officer of any issuer in Alberta. There is one exception to the ban: Clarke may continue to act as a director or officer of any issuer solely for the purpose of dissolving, winding down or filing a proposal in bankruptcy for that issuer.

The move follows an October 17, 2006 decision by the British Columbia Securities Commission to bar Clarke from the market for 20 years.

The BCSC issued its order after Clarke and his firm (Bick Financial Services) raised about $4.4 million through illegal trades and distributions of securities of Kleincorp Management Inc., doing business as Insta-Cash Loans.

The ASC hearing panel said that “we are persuaded that, unless we intervene with protective and deterrent sanctions, it is conceivable that Clarke could resume similar capital-raising activities in Alberta, further exposing Alberta residents and the Alberta capital market to harm.”

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Lawyers seek class action status against CIBC

(November 19, 2007) A lawsuit against CIBC claiming damages for unpaid overtime may soon be certified as a class action, after lawyers representing lead plaintiff, Dara Fresco, filed for the status in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

“We have learned, through interviews with hundreds of current and former CIBC employees that Dara’s experience regularly working overtime without pay is a common one across Canada,” said Douglas Elliott. “We will argue that this strongly supports certifying this case as a class action.”

The statement of claim alleges that the bank assigned such large work loads to class members that they could not possibly complete their work during their shift. To complete their work, they had to work extra hours for which they were not paid.

CIBC has until the end of March 2008 to answer the evidence now in the hands of the court.

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Quebec law vexes CMAs

(November 19, 2007) The body which governs certified management accountants in Quebec has come out swinging against proposed legislation which it says would subordinate CMAs to chartered accountants.

Bill 46 ostensibly aims to break the monopoly chartered accountants have on public accounting, which would bring Quebec in-line with the rest of the country.

“From now on, three accounting orders will supervise the practice of public accounting,” says Richard Désy, President of the president of l’Ordre des comptables en management accrédités du Québec. “It is — to say the least — surprising and contrary to all logic that the government insists on defining public accounting within the Chartered Accountants Act, just as it did last year in Bill 64 that died on the order paper.”

Désy described Bill 46 as a threat to “the principles of self-management, self-regulation and autonomy for each profession.”

(11/19/07)