Message from the Chair & Section Opportunities

  • November 28, 2017

Anita Banicevic

Dear Section members,

It has been a very busy fall for the CBA Competition Law Section. To begin with, I am happy to report that our annual Fall Conference, chaired by Shuli Rodal of Oslers was a terrific success. With a sold-out crowd of over 250 participants and standing room only in sessions, we welcomed speakers and thought leaders from the U.S., Brazil and various parts of Canada. We were also privileged to have strong participation from the Competition Bureau including the Commissioner of Competition. Thank you again to Shuli and Marianne Pelletier from the CBA as well as to all of our speakers, sponsors and participants for helping to make the Fall Conference such a success!

As the flakes begin to fall, we are also looking forward to the Spring Conference, to be held at the Toronto Board of Trade on May 10th and chaired by Tony Di Domenico of Faskens. This spring, we will be covering the latest trends, developments and decisions in antitrust in Canada and internationally. Mark your calendars and register early!

Opportunities to Get Involved

The CBA leadership is currently working on a variety of submissions. We will shortly submit comments related to the Bureau’s Big Data white paper and we are hoping to host a roundtable on the topic in the New Year. The Criminal Matters Committee (chaired by Chris Naudie of Osler) is currently working on a submission related to the proposed amendments to the Bureau’s Immunity Program.

Other recent submissions include Statutory Review of Canada's Anti-Spam Law: Letter to Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (October 2017)

We also have a variety of CLE programs hosted by our substantive committees coming up. We have two programs coming up soon with a “View from the MNU” on December 11th and a discussion of the Anticompetitive Effects of Horizontal Shareholdings on December 5th. If you have any ideas for future programming, or wish to see an area covered, please feel free to reach out to the committee leadership.

If you attended the Fall Conference, you likely received a copy of the Section’s CCLR publication. There’s still time to get an article into next year’s spring edition, if you submit by November 30, 2017. The deadline for the fall edition is March 9, 2018. The Canadian Competition Law Review is looking for articles on issues in competition law in Canada and around the world. CCLR also accepts comments on noteworthy cases, including consent order settlements. The submission guidelines are available here. Papers can be submitted to cancomplrev@cba.org.

We encourage you to follow @CBACompetition on Twitter and join the CBA Competition Law Section’s LinkedIn group.

Thank you to all of our committee leadership for all of your dedication and hard work in bringing relevant and timely programming to the Section membership.

Best regards,

Anita Banicevic,
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
Chair, CBA Competition Law Section 2017-18