The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal on the admissibility of new expert evidence in a judicial review of an Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) enforcement case.
The top court dismissed an application for leave to appeal a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario from Nov. 18, 2025. In that decision, the Ontario court refused to hear an appeal of a ruling of the Ontario Divisional Court brought by respondents in an OSC proceeding, seeking a judicial review of a regulatory enforcement action.
In 2013, the OSC ordered lifetime bans and $5 million in monetary sanctions — including disgorgement, penalties and costs — against finance firm North American Financial Group Inc., a related company and a couple of executives, after finding that they violated securities law and defrauded investors.
In 2018, the respondents sought a judicial review of the regulator’s decisions, arguing that the decisions on liability and sanctions should be set aside. That appeal was rejected, but they then asked the court to set aside that decision, and submitted new evidence in support of their case that included seven expert reports from a handful of former regulators and academics.
The OSC challenged the introduction of the expert report evidence, and the court agreed with the regulator. It granted a motion excluding them on the grounds that they were either irrelevant, not necessary or dealt with issues that fall within the court’s expertise. In addition to denying the new evidence, the court also ruled that the OSC was entitled to $100,000 in security for its costs.
The respondents’ bid to appeal those rulings has now run into a dead end with the Supreme Court declining to hear their case.