Under the Canada Business Corporations Act, the shareholders and creditors of a business corporation, their , and the Director of Corporations Canada may inspect the corporation’s books described in this Act, including the register of securities, during normal business hours at the corporation’s offices and make extracts from them free of charge. Shareholders of the corporation may, upon request and at no cost, obtain a copy of the articles, by-laws, and unanimous shareholder agreements. In Canada, any person who, without reasonable cause, contravenes the federal law regarding the inspection of a corporation’s books and records commits an offense and is liable, upon conviction on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars and imprisonment for up to six months, or either of these penalties.
Under the Quebec Business Corporations Act, shareholders may inspect the books of the business corporation described in that Act during normal office hours and obtain extracts from them free of charge; they may also, upon request and at no cost, obtain a copy of the articles of incorporation, the by-laws, and any unanimous shareholders’ agreement. The creditors of the provincially incorporated corporation may, in the same manner, inspect the unanimous shareholders’ agreement , if any.
In Quebec, shareholders and creditors of a corporation are strictly prohibited from inspecting the minutes of directors’ meetings as well as the accounting books.