In a recent decision in the CCAA proceedings involving the Cannapiece Group, Mr. Justice Osborne of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected an application for a reverse vesting order brought by the debtor companies and supported by the monitor.

Executive Summary:

En 2022, le marché canadien du capital d’investissement privé a connu plusieurs développements importants qui ont eu des répercussions sur l’activité transactionnelle dans tous les secteurs. À quelles grandes tendances peut-on s’attendre en 2023?

In the past six months, four major players in the crypto space have filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection: Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, FTX, and BlockFi, and more may be forthcoming. Together, the debtors in these four bankruptcy cases are beholden to hundreds of thousands of creditors. The bulk of the claims in these cases are customer claims related to cryptocurrency held on the debtors’ respective platforms. These customer claimants deposited or “stored” fiat currency and cryptocurrencies on the debtors’ platforms.

On November 29, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent requests for information to the CEOs of six of the largest crypto exchanges. The requests seek information about the safeguards each exchange has put in place to protect customers’ assets in the event they file for bankruptcy or otherwise experience financial distress.

Le 3 novembre 2022, un projet de loi visant à accorder une priorité supplémentaire aux régimes de retraite dans le cadre des procédures d'insolvabilité a franchi une autre étape vers son adoption.

On November 3, 2022, new legislation aimed at providing additional priority to pensions in insolvency proceedings moved one step closer to becoming law.

Summary

The U.S. Bankruptcy Code’s safe harbor provisions provide comfort to financial institutions that transfers made under protected financial contracts will generally not be subject to avoidance or “clawback” if the transferor subsequently files for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The Alberta Court of Appeal (the “ABCA”)’s anticipated decision in Manitok Energy Inc (Re), 2022 ABCA 117 (“Manitok”) confirmed that the sales proceeds of a debtor estate’s valuable petroleum and natural gas assets that are subject environmental claims including, notably, abandonment and reclamation obligations, must first be applied to abandonment and reclamation obligations, even where such assets are “unrelated” to the abandonment and reclamation obligations.