Business Concerns Records Act

1. In this Act, the following words mean: (a) “document”: any account, balance sheet, statement of receipts and expenditure, profit and loss statement, statement of assets and liabilities, inventory, report and any other writing or material forming part of the records or archives of a business concern; (b) “concern”: any business concern in Québec; (c) “requirement”: any demand, direction, order, subpoena or summons. R. S. 1964, c. 278, s. 1.

2. Subject to section 3, no person shall, pursuant to or under any requirement issued by any legislative, judicial or administrative authority outside Québec, remove or cause to be removed, or send or cause to be sent, from any place in Québec to a place outside Québec, any document or résumé or digest of any document relating to any concern. R. S. 1964, c. 278, s. 2.

3. The prohibition enacted in section 2 shall not apply in the case of the removal or sending of a document out of Québec (a) by an agency, branch, legal person or firm carrying on business in Québec, to a principal, head office, affiliated legal person or firm, agency or branch situated outside Québec, in the ordinary course of their business; (b) by or on behalf of a natural or legal person, a partnership or an association that is not a legal person carrying on business in Québec, to a territory subject to another political jurisdiction in which the sale of the securities of such person, partnership or association has been authorized; (c) by or on behalf of any such person, partnership or association carrying on business in Québec as a broker, security issuer or salesman within the meaning of the Securities Act (chapter V-1.1), to a territory subject to another political jurisdiction in which any such person, partnership or association has been registered or is otherwise authorized to carry on business as broker, security issuer or salesman, as the case may be; (d) whenever such removal or sending is authorized by any law of Québec or of the Parliament of Canada, in accordance with their respective jurisdictions. R. S. 1964, c. 278, s. 3; 2009, c. 52, s. 590.

4. Whenever there is reason to believe that a requirement has been or is likely to be made for the removal or sending out of Québec of a document relating to a concern, the Attorney General may apply to a judge of the Court of Québec, in the judicial district where the concern in question is located, for an order requiring any person, whether or not designated in the requirement, to furnish an undertaking or security to ensure that such person will not remove or send out of Québec the document mentioned in the said requirement. In case of urgency, the application may be filed and presented to the judge without prior service. The judge may however order the service thereof within such time, in such manner and on such conditions as he may consider expedient. Every person having an interest in a concern may exercise the rights contemplated in this section. R. S. 1964, c. 278, s. 4; 1965 (1st sess.), c. 17, s. 2; 1988, c. 21, s. 66; 1999, c. 40, s. 109; I.N. 2016-01-01 (NCCP).

5. Every person who, having received notice of an application to a judge of the Court of Québec under section 4, infringes the provisions of section 2, shall be guilty of contempt of court. Every person who has furnished, or has received from the judge an order to furnish, an undertaking or security and who infringes the provisions of section 2 shall be guilty of contempt of court in addition to any obligation provided by the undertaking or security furnished or ordered by the judge. R. S. 1964, c. 278, s. 5; 1965 (1st sess.), c. 17, s. 2; 1988, c. 21, s. 66; 1990, c. 4, s. 388; 1992, c. 61, s. 267; I.N. 2016-01-01 (NCCP).

6. (This section ceased to have effect on 17 April 1987). 1982, c. 21, s. 1; U. K., 1982, c. 11, Sch. B, Part I, s. 33.

In accordance with section 17 of the Act respecting the consolidation of the statutes (chapter R-3), chapter 278 of the Revised Statutes, 1964, in force on 31 December 1977, is repealed effective from the coming into force of chapter D-12 of the Revised Statutes.