By James Langton

(April 5 – 16:30 ET) – The British Columbia Supreme Court has upheld the B.C. Securities Commission’s power to search a business premises in the course of an investigation.

In a decision released this week, Justice M. I. Catliff found that a search warrant issued under the Securities Act did not violate the unreasonable search and seizure section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judge also rejected a claim that the order permitted a “fishing expedition”, saying that the standards for obtaining the order were stringent enough to deter that improper use of power.

The ruling came in response to a petition by Michael Mitton, Charles Wiebe and Capital Ventures Ltd. in the first-ever court challenge of the BCSC’s search powers. The move came out of the commission’s investigation into H and R Enterprises Inc.

Justice Catliff concluded that the primary purpose of securities legislation is to protect the investing public. It is a form of economic regulation, so the standards applied in criminal cases should not be strictly applied in a regulatory case because the commission must be able to use these powers to meet its purpose of regulating the market and protecting the public interest.

“We intend to continue using these orders in appropriate cases in future to protect the public interest,” said BCSC enforcement director Sasha Angus, who noted he was pleased with the ruling because it confirms the commission’s ability to issue search orders under the Securities Act.