CONSUMER ADVOCATES
There are many individuals who are taking action to address the issues
effecting small investors. This section provides information on
individuals or groups who are fighting for the small investor and
consumer/investor protection.
SIPA does not control the linked sites and is not responsible
for the content, including, without limitation, the truthfulness or
accuracy of any statement or other content, of any linked site or any link
contained in a linked site. SIPA has not reviewed the
information contained in the linked sites and does not endorse the
companies, products or sites to which it links. If you decide to access
any of the third party sites linked to our site, you do this entirely at
your own risk.
FAIR
(Federal Accountability Initiative
for Reform) promotes
integrity and accountability within
government by empowering employees
to speak out without fear of
reprisal when they encounter
wrongdoing. FAIR's aim is to support
legislation and management practices
that will provide effective
protection for whistleblowers and
hence occupational free speech in
the workplace.
Founded in 1998 by Joanna
Gualtieri, FAIR is a registered
Canadian charity, run by volunteers.
The Executive Director David Hutton
is supported by an eminent Advisory
Board which includes David Kilgour,
David Swann, Gerard Seijts and
Robert Stenhouse.
Contact FAIR at:
David
Hutton, Executive Director
Federal Accountability Initiative
for Reform (FAIR)
82 Strathcona Ave, Ottawa, ON, K1S
1X6
Phone:
613-567-1511 613-567-1511
Email: david@fairwhistleblower.ca
Fund Democracy was founded by Mercer Bullard in the United States. Fund
Democracy's purpose is to serve as an advocate and information resource
for mutual fund shareholders. Fund Democracy's advocacy program is
multi-faceted. Fund Democracy publishes articles that target mutual fund
practices, policies and rules that are harmful to fund shareholders. Fund
Democracy also formulates advocacy initiatives and, with the support of a
consortium of consumer groups, seeks to effectuate reforms that will
benefit mutual fund shareholders. These initiatives include
submitting comment letters on rule proposals, asking for hearings on
requests for exemptions from fund regulations, lobbying federal and state
legislators, submitting rulemaking petitions, filing briefs as a friend of
the court in cases that may affect mutual fund shareholder interests, and
participating in selected litigation on a pro bono basis.
Larry Elford is a retired stockbroker. Larry wrote regular columns
offering investment advice. Some of his advice focused on how the public
could save money on mutual fund commissions, and this did not sit well with the
firm. He is now retired and has created a Blog where he is free to offer
commentary on issues that effect investors.
Blogs are empowering the people to put out messages that the media are
either unwilling or unable to publish. Larry has previously written
articles that were published in the SIPA Sentinel.
A forum has been created at www.investoradvocates.ca
to discuss topics and issues related to investing. It is refreshing to see
a forum to publish comment when so much of the communication through the
media is controlled by the establishment. This forum seems to be
responsibly run and provides a lot of excellent commentary on issues
effecting investors. It's worth a visit.
This website provides a critical view of the Self Regulatory
Organizations in the Canadian Securities Industry. The website is well
organized and in addition to commentary it provides a wealth of factual
information. There are a number of sections including "Media"
with the latest news articles, "Cases" providing the full text
of decisions, "The Law" providing the full text of some
applicable legislation, and a "Search" mechanism enabling a site
search for particular information. This is an excellent source as a
reference for investors and
investor advocates.
Joe Killoran is a former stockbroker and now a dedicated investor advocate promoting a one page
checklist for the sale of mutual funds.
Killoran was the first person to report Dino DeLellis to the Ontario
Securities Commission back in 1995. An article "Charges
provide small comfort" in the London Free Press by Shelly Lawson
on May 7, 1999, says:
"For London and area investors who have lost millions of dollars
and face uncertain financial futures, charges announced yesterday by the
RCMP against three prominent Londoners are small comfort.
Killoran, a former stockbroker and Londoner now living in Oshawa, first
reported the practices of former mutual fund salesperson Dino DeLellis to
the Ontario Securities Commission in 1995.
DeLellis, 38, who was eventually fined $50,000 for tax evasion by Revenue
Canada in 1997 and banned from selling securities by the OSC in 1998, will
appear in court June 24 to face criminal charges for receiving a secret
commission.
Killoran has been lobbying for years for more investor education, better
up-front disclosure about commissions, trailer fees and the salesperson's
track record with the securities commission.
He also wants to see a mandatory code of ethics for sales people and a
requirement that, like physicians, they must report unethical
practitioners."
The Norshield Victims Committee is the latest victims
group formed as a result of the failure of the regulators to provide
adequate investor protection. This new Victims Group issued a press
release on March 10, 2010. News Release from
Norshield Victims Committee
OSC releases final decision and findings on Norshield
Asset Management (Olympus United Funds) and the breaches of key staff
members Toronto, Canada, March 10, 2010
The Ontario Securities Commission released their
decision on Norshield Asset Management (NAM) and the Olympus Hedge Funds.
The three key staff members, CEO John Xanthoudakis, President Dale Smith,
and Advising Officer and Portfolio Manager Peter Kefalas, were found to be
in breach of Ontario securities laws and acted contrary to the public
interest. The OSC indicated that NAM lost $159 million invested by 1900
retail investors in Canada. Hundreds of millions more were invested by an
unknown number of Institutional Investors in Canada which implies that even
more Canadians have been affected, but are unaware.
The OSC Reasons and Decision document is available
at:
http://www.osc.gov.on.ca/documents/en/rad_20100308_rev-norshield.pdf
More information is available on the Norshield
Victims blog web page
which can be viewed at:
NorshieldVictims.blogspot.com
Contact: Chris Ouslis - 416.708.4931 -
Norshield.Victims@gmail.com
Ms. Glorianne Stromberg, former OSC Commission and
securities litigator is one of Canada's best investor advocates. Her
report "Investment Funds in Canada and
Consumer Protection - Strategies for the Millennium"
prepared for the Office of Consumer Affairs, Industry Canada in October
1998 is a definitive work detailing the problems for small investors and
recommending solutions. Jonathan Chevreau writes in the Financial
Post on September 25, 2004 "Regulators
miss the real fund scandals - Conflicts of interest, high fees hurt more
than late trading". In this article Jonathan writes "the
commodity being sold by the investment industry is supposed to be quality
objective advice meant to improve the financial well-being of its clients.
That's why investor advocates make such an issue over trust and fiduciary
responsibility. Stromberg says the bottom line is that by condoning
practices that put their interests ahead of investors, the fund industry
'is breaching the trust that it has long encouraged investors to place in
it. They are losing the right to claim that they act with integrity.'
"
Prime Time Crime (www.primetimecrime.com) provides an
outline of Whistleblowers, or TruthTellers as we prefer to call them, and
their experience when they came forward to tell the truth. SIPA believes
that legislation to protect all Canadians when they are prepared to come
forward to tell the truth is an essential part of regulatory reform. The
financial services industry is so large and complex that it is impossible
to mobilize a regulatory system that can adequately monitor all the
activity to identify wrongdoing. It is improbable that an industry where
wrongdoing appears to be systemic can be expected to reform without strong
encouragement. Enforcement of regulations can only be accomplished if
regulators can identify breaches. Encouraging honest individuals to report
misdeeds without fear of reprisal will enable regulators to function
effectively. TruthTeller protection is an essential ingredient for an
effective regulatory system.
There were several other investor advocate websites for
which links were provided but they are no longer active or the URLs have
been revised:
Association de Protection des
Épargnants et Investisseurs du Québec (APEIQ)
Yves Michaud was the founding president of the APEIQ founded in 1995.
Yves is well known in Quebec and Canada for his efforts on behalf of
savers and investors and has been prominent at corporate annual
meetings.
The
Consumer Advocate
The consumer advocate website was a free forum by Beasley Allen.
There were rules and policies to be
followed. "All messages
expressed the views of the author, but neither the owners of The Consumer
Advocate, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) accepted responsibility for the content of any message
and reserved the right to
remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason." A few of
the many forums were "Whistleblower Litigation", "Tax
Shelters", and "Stock Frauds".
Fund
Democracy
Fund Democracy was founded by Mercer Bullard in the United States. Fund
Democracy's purpose was to serve as an advocate and information resource
for mutual fund shareholders. Fund Democracy publishesdarticles that targeted
mutual fund practices, policies and rules harmful to fund shareholders.
Gadsden
Creative
Gadsden Creative was one of North America's most
innovative providers of print media communications, publishing and
financial management services. Gadsden Creative was established by Stephen Gadsden
in 1998. Mr. Gadsden has written 14 books, and hundreds of articles
on business and finance. He specialized in communications, publishing and
financial management. He
had published his
book "The No
Stress Guide to Investing in Gold".
The Newsmakers
section of the website presented recent news articles related to various
industries and specialized subjects. Gadsden published an
Open Letter to
Canadians and talked about his experience with Fortune Financial, Equion
and Assante. He says he was prompted to write after reading John Reynolds
"The Naked Investor".
http://members.home.net/jfroache/nesbitt.html - This
website was operated out of Ottawa, Ontario by Jim Roache, a former
journalist, and was active for several years. It stated "Our
mission is to alert other small investors to the dangers of dealing with
even "full service" brokerages and to educate people about their
options (or lack thereof) when problems develop." Jim actively helped
numerous investors during the time the website was operational.
Lizotte
v. RBC Dominion
Although Mr. Lizotte's case is not about small investors, the Lizotte
v. RBC Dominion case is important to small investors because Justice
Morneau's decision awarded immediate payment to Mr. Lizotte, and
recognized the delaying tactics used by RBC Dominion in this action. Mr.
Lizotte has fought a long costly battle and in the summer of 1999 won his
case. The
Lizotte Victory
website provided information on the case which in both English and French.
Ralph
Nader - Consumer Advocate
Nader was active in matters involving the environment, consumerism,
foreign policy and campaign finance reform in the United States. He was chosen as the Green
Party Candidate in the years 1996 and 2000. The Green Party is dedicated
to consumer and environmental protection issues. At the turn of the 21st
century, Nader was called "one of the most influential people of the
20th century" by Time Magazine. Laws that have resulted from his work
over the past fifty years have given consumers the ability to defend
themselves against corporations and against the government. In addition,
countless lives may have been saved due to increasingly safe products. www.badbrokers.com
- This American website was
created to provide information to the investing public with regard to
brokers who have breached the rules and regulations. Unfortunately it was
operational for only a short time after which it closed and indicated for
a period of time that it was under construction.
www.theinvestoradvocate.ca -
This website was operated out of Calgary, Alberta from 2001 to 2003
and claimed to be the only "Investor Advocate" service west of
Toronto. The website described a dispute that was settled in January 2000
and offered "Forensic Investigations" of brokerage accounts.
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