An essential feature of any claim for common law misrepresentation is actual reliance on the misrepresentation - an inherently individual issue. For this reason, in large part, shareholder class actions based on negligent misrepresentation have met with little success in Canada. However, Canadian lawmakers have recently enacted legislation that provides a statutory claim for secondary market misrepresentation, without the need to prove actual reliance. In order to prevent a flood of unmeritorious claims, the new statutory provisions include a 'gatekeeper' mechanism which requires potential plaintiffs to seek leave from the court before commencing an action.

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