In Canada, only one incorporating jurisdiction allows a search by officer or director name. Uncovering a person’s corporate affiliations in Canada is difficult.
The Investigator must embark upon an involved search strategy using a variety of database aggregators, the Internet, and a few public record sources. After conducting all these searches, the Investigator will never be certain that he has found everything.
Doing this type of research is dependent upon the Investigator’s understanding of the sources’ content and how to connect the data to the objectives of the investigation.
The Investigator must know how to search directory databases, commercial credit reports, news and journal databases, insider filings, statistical data, court records, lien filings, and much more to reveal corporate affiliations in Canada.
do you know of a good central resource about public records in Canada ? I find them hard to find, given they are by juridiction.
Thanx !
Jeff:
No such central source exists. Most of this data is tightly controlled by the individual jurisdiction. It is the nature of our constitution that creates a division of powers. Also the Canadian market is not large enough to make it commercially viable for online aggregators to make public records available online even if the the governments would allow it.
You also have to be careful to understand what is made public on the Internet is usually not the complete record. This is particularly true with corporate records.
Your best route is to develop a relationship with a reputable public record researcher, or better yet several. The maritime provinces and Quebec offer their own unique challenges.