Predatory short selling is now front-page news around the world thanks to the ongoing “GameStop stock surge” story. We at Save Canadian Mining (SCM) applaud the efforts of retail investment communities seeking to raise public awareness on an unfair capital market system that allows predatory short selling practices to proliferate. We feel this story helps to expose the trading activities of some large hedge funds and the effect they continue to have on small businesses trying to raise capital, hire and contribute to the economy. We trust that law makers in Canada and the public are getting a better sense of the issues we have been raising for the junior mining sector since we formed in 2019.
Save Canadian Mining applauds all legal and transparent efforts to curb predatory short selling. It is inspiring to see what can happen when a critical mass of people can come together and “fight back” against a system they feel is rigged against them. While SCM speaks for a different stakeholder group, (namely small mining companies and junior issuers) we would be remiss if we didn’t reflect the opinion of our over 3,000 supporters that have galvinized around their feelings of frustration and distrust as it relates to our capital markets. We have still today many junior mining companies dealing with these unscrupulous trading practices which we have proven have materially negatively impacted mining valuations across the board.
Recently, the Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce released a series of recommendations to the Ontario Ford government including several dealings with predatory short selling. We endorsed these recommendations in a press release last week. Implemented properly (this is key!), this could help alleviate the situation.
The Taskforce stopped short of recommending the reinstatement of the “tick test,” something we have campaigned for since our launch. Save Canadian Mining wants an end to predatory short selling and a fair and transparent system for our investors and our companies. We are hopeful these steps the Taskforce recommended will be implemented in a manner that leads to this outcome. If it does, this may mitigate the need for a tick test in the short term. But as we may soon shortly see with the GameStop phenomenon, the reinstatement of the tick test will finally be seen as a worthy tool to further protect small issuers and retail investors. After all, it worked for 142 years! We will be watching and cheering on the Ford government as they respond to this global issue that has now captured everyone’s attention.
Save Canadian Mining will be hosting several new webinars in 2021 as we continue to push for an end to predatory short selling. Watch out for a chance to attend and contribute to the discussion as we continue to focus our efforts on convincing governments across the country to take concrete steps towards protecting our investors, our companies, our employees, and our stakeholder communities from the negative impact of predatory short selling!
