Sébastien C. Caron

Four British Columbia residents alleged to have participated in a transnational pump-and-dump securities manipulation scheme with links to Quebec challenged the adjudicative jurisdiction of Quebec's Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (FMAT) over out-of-province defendants.

The majority held that while the Civil Code of Québec's private international law rules did not independently ground jurisdiction, the Quebec securities scheme — comprising the Securities Act and the Act respecting the Autorité des marchés financiers — properly interpreted in light of the Unifund sufficient connection test, conferred jurisdiction on the FMAT over appellants who had a real and substantial connection to Quebec.

The majority dismissed the appeals, finding that using Quebec as the 'face' of the scheme and injuring Quebec investors established the requisite connection.

Côté J. dissented, arguing that the majority conflated constitutional applicability of legislation with adjudicative jurisdiction, and that in the absence of express conferral of territorial jurisdiction by special statute, the C.C.Q.'s private international law rules exclusively govern, under which the FMAT lacked jurisdiction.

The Court considered whether section 27 of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act removes Crown immunity from discovery when the Crown is not a party.

It held that immunity can be displaced only by clear statutory language, and section 27 applies only to proceedings against the Crown.

Because neither the Crown nor the chief investigator was a party, the investigator could refuse discovery.

The appeal was allowed and the respondents’ discovery motion was dismissed with costs throughout.