Investors peppered regulators with questions about lost investment funds, allegedly crooked advisors and lax regulations at the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investor Town Hall meeting in Toronto Tuesday evening.

One investor asked about recent amendments proposed in the recent Ontario budget that could reduce the length of time investors have to seek redress for a securities-related problem.

“I think it’s a legitimate issue,” said David Brown, commissioner of the OSC. “We’re going to talk to the government about it.”

Other investors presented stories in which they claimed to have been wronged by renegade advisors and to have received little help from oversight bodies. About 400 people attended meeting.

In his opening remarks, Brown acknowledged that the OSC might have come up short in guarding investor interests.

“We may not have placed sufficient emphasis on protecting the investor as a consumer of financial services. And that includes assisting people to obtain restitution when they have been badly dealt with by the system,” Brown said.

“We’re not here to defend the system, but to improve it.”

Testy attendees lobbed questions and comments at Brown and at fellow panelists Joe Oliver, president and CEO of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada; Larry Waite, president and CEO of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association; Michael Lauber, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, and Stan Buell, president of the Small Investor Protection Association.

Many were angry about what they claimed was the SROs’ lack of teeth in handing out penalties and enforcing sanctions and their inability to provide restitution to wronged investors.

Sometimes, however, investor questions touched on issues outside of the SROs’ purview, as when one investor asked about CEO compensation. Another asked about unequal voting rights among different classes of shares.

“It’s a market problem,” Brown said, “ not a regulatory problem.”

All panelists urged investors who felt they had been wronged to contact the SRO in question — specifically its ombudsman — who is charged with protecting individual investors.