now that the auditor general report on the Alberta Securities Commission is public, we can see the lineup of how many people co-operate to cover up regulatory failures.
First crime is within the industry, when a client, a whistleblower, or an employee is abused.
Second crime is when the regulator brushes aside the complaint without reason, without process, and without realizing that the law has been broken.
Third crime is when said regulator fools their bosses above them that everything is fine, that the complaints you are hearing from the public are unfounded.
Fourth crime is when the bosses above, in this case Alberta Finance Minister Shirley Mclellan buys into the "see no evil" line, and parrots it back to the public.
Each and every one of them has a motive and a self interest in hiding or covering up the problem. Regardless that they also each have a duty to act professionally and in the best interests of those they represent. this does not appear to happen.
If it means that claimants or complaints, made in the last decade or so to the regulator, have to join into a class action and demand recourse for the many failures documented by this regulator, then so be it. It would be rather unfortunate to have to take this step, but it appears as if those in charge just might choose to bury the issue, rather than address it head on.
(on a related issue for but one example of regulatory failure, it has become more and more obvious that the IDA is simply a industry trade body. People have complained of this false role, or "title inflation" when the IDA has tried to proclaim itself a regulatory agency of some kind.
Now it appears ever more obvious that the IDA has the mandate to regulate it's "membership" (registration, behavior etc) only, and not Provincial Securities Acts. With provincial Securities Commissions across the country having delegated (abrogated) thier responsibility for the securities act to this trade association for years now, it is time they are held responsible for the lives, the finances, the careers and the rest of the ruin they have allowed by not doing the job they purport to do.
see IDA and ASC forums at www.investoradvocates.ca for public discussion and progress towards accountability.
