September 23, 2008 Decisions and Freeze and cease trade orders Securities

Montréal – At the request of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières (BDRVM) today issued an amended temporary order prohibiting short selling of securities of certain financial sector issuers that are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and are also interlisted in the United States (with the exception of one issuer whose shares are interchangeable).

The order prohibits any person, until October 3, 2008 inclusively unless a renewal is issued, from short selling the common shares of the following issuers: Aberdeen Asia-Pacific Income Investment  Ltd. (FAP), Bank of Montréal (BMO), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (FFH), Kingsway Financial Services Inc. (KFS), Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC), Quest Capital Corp. (QC), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Sun Life Financial Inc. (SLF), Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. (TWP), Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) and Merrill Lynch & Co., Ltd. (MLC).

The AMF believes the amended order is in the public interest and will help protect investors and ensure the continued smooth operation of the financial markets. This amended order, which supports the decision issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 22, 2008, is also less restrictive than the original order issued by the BDRVM on September 19. In particular, it limits the short sale prohibition to the common shares of targeted issuers.

The original order on September 19, 2008 was issued by the BDRVM as a precautionary measure on the heels of restrictions imposed by the U.S. SEC, the U.K. Financial Services Authority and various securities regulators in Canada.

The latest request made by the AMF to the BDRVM is posted on the AMF website under "News."

The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec's financial sector.

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