Early Warning Report (EWR)
An Early Warning Report is a disclosure Canadian securities law requires when an investor — or a group acting together — acquires beneficial ownership of 10% or more of a company's voting or equity securities, and again for every additional 2% acquired or disposed.
Under National Instrument 62-103 (the early warning system), once an investor's holdings cross the 10% threshold of a class of voting or equity securities, they must promptly issue a news release and file an early warning report — typically within two business days. The same applies for every subsequent 2% increase, every 2% decrease, and when the investor's stake falls back below 10%.
Unlike SEDI insider reports, early warning reports apply to any large shareholder — not just directors, officers, or those already classified as insiders — and they're filed on SEDAR+ rather than SEDI.
Early warning reports are one of the clearest public signals of activist investors building a position, institutional accumulation, or the early stages of a potential takeover, since they're triggered by ownership thresholds rather than any individual's role at the company.
See the SEDI and Form 55-102F4 entries for how Form55 tracks insider-level trading activity.