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Haran Viswanathan

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Haran Viswanathan is an associate in the Corporate & Securities Group of Baker McKenzie's Toronto office. Prior to joining the Firm, Haran was in-house counsel for a global oil and gas company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

On 3 April 2023, significant amendments to the Canadian Securities Exchange listing policies came into force. Notably, the amendments are comprehensive in that they revise each of the CSE’s ten policies and create greater consistency between the policies of the CSE and other Canadian stock exchanges such as the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange.

On 13 April 2023, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published a request for comments due by 12 July 2023. The CSA proposes two approaches to enhance the disclosure requirements of non-venture issuers that were previously adopted by most CSA jurisdictions in 2014 regarding corporate governance practices pertaining to board nomination, board renewal and diversity on boards and in executive officer positions. The proposals are designed to increase transparency about diversity and to provide investors with useful information to better understand how diversity is addressed by an issuer. The CSA has also requested comments on adapting similar diversity disclosure requirements to venture issuers in the future.

On 8 October 2020, the Government of Ontario tabled the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2020 (Bill 213) for its second reading. Bill 213 introduces red tape reduction and regulatory modernization efforts to make Ontario more competitive. Among the changes proposed are amendments to the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (OBCA) which would eliminate director residency requirements for Ontario corporations, and permit written shareholder resolutions to be effective if signed by a majority of votes rather than a unanimity of shareholders. Bill 213 has not yet received royal assent, and no date has been set for the coming into force of the proposed changes to the OBCA.