Articles

On October 15, 2018 Statistics Canada published the results of a survey on cyber-security revealing that more than one in five Canadian businesses has been targeted by a cyber-attack, and that in 2017 they spent $14 billion to prevent and/or deal with the consequences of such security incidents. As a general rule, businesses have no legal obligation to report a cyber-attack to government authorities unless personal information is involved and applicable legislation imposes a mandatory reporting regime.

The Cannabis Act (Canada) and the Cannabis Regulation Act (Quebec) came into force on October 17, 2018. Here are 11 things you may not know about the rules governing the commercialization of cannabis in Quebec that will have to be taken into consideration in planning public relations and marketing campaigns.

In our previous bulletins on the duties and responsibilities of directors we looked at the extent of these obligations both from a general point of view and in certain specific situations. These initial articles sought to simplify the norms that govern the work of directors, and to illustrate how they apply in specific contexts. We have already identified some of the risk zones directors have to contend with. These zones contain pitfalls that must be avoided in conducting the day-to-day business of an organization. It is however extremely difficult to do this effectively if prevention and monitoring measures are not in place. That is the raison d’être of compliance programs.

On September 4, the Building Act became much stricter regarding the conditions for obtaining and retaining a contractor’s licence. It now gives broad powers to Quebec’s construction regulator, the Régie du bâtiment, requiring stakeholders in the construction industry to be pure as the driven snow.

As part of our series of bulletins on the duties and obligations of directors, we will focus on the application of the general concepts of psychological and sexual harassment.

Blockchain technology and its application to cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly prominent in Quebec. While the technology has been in existence for some 10 years, the development of large-scale real estate projects dedicated to cryptocurrency mining is currently in full swing. The availability of large tracts of land, the relatively cold climate and the low cost of electricity combine to make Quebec a favourable environment for the development and growth of this industry.