Trudeau's new law allows the rich to avoid criminal charges

[Gone_Fishin]

Federal budget bill quietly proposes tool to ease penalties for corporate crime


A federal proposal that would allow prosecutors to suspend criminal charges against companies in certain cases of corporate wrongdoing has been quietly included in the Trudeau government's 582-page budget legislation.

The Canadian Press




OTTAWA — A federal proposal that would allow prosecutors to suspend criminal charges against companies in certain cases of corporate wrongdoing has been quietly included in the Trudeau government’s 582-page budget legislation.

In fact, its inclusion was so discreet, even one Liberal MP studying the legislation was caught by surprise.

The government intends to move forward with an amendment to the Criminal Code to create an optional tool for prosecutors that’s sometimes referred to as a “deferred prosecution agreement.”

Such agreements are designed to encourage more companies to come forward to self-report corporate crimes and to identify individuals for prosecution. If it lives up to its end of the bargain, the company as a whole would avoid facing serious criminal charges, which could include bribery, corruption and insider trading.

The change, however, has raised concerns among lawmakers, including Liberals, on the House of Commons finance committee, which has been analyzing the broader budget bill.

A few members of the all-party committee said they were first made aware of the change only after it was brought to their attention during the testimony of a senior Justice Department late last Tuesday night.

The explanation by Ann Sheppard, a senior counsel in the criminal law policy section, prompted many questions from members who recommended the provision on the deferred prosecution agreement be removed from the legislation because it was such a significant change that they thought it warranted more thorough study.

Some also called for the provision to be studied by the House of Commons justice committee, which they argued has more expertise when it comes to changes to the Criminal Code.

Liberal MP Greg Fergus told the committee at last Tuesday’s hearing that he was concerned the change appeared to be designed to give those implicated in white-collar crimes “a little slap on the wrist.”

“I do have some serious questions about this,” said Fergus, who said while he had read through most of the large budget bill before the committee hearing, he hadn’t seen the deferred prosecution provision.

“It seems we’re letting those with the means have an easier time of it than those who don’t have the means.”

In her explanation, Sheppard described the regime as a new tool that would give prosecutors discretionary power to seek an agreement with a company accused of economic crimes when it’s in the public interest. The charges against the firm would be stayed pending the successful completion of the agreement, she said.

The legislation lists 31 qualifying offences, including bribery of a foreign public official, municipal corruption, fraud, theft, forgery and insider trading. The government calls the proposed system the “remediation agreement regime.”

An agreement would still compel a company to co-operate by, among other things, admitting responsibility and paying monetary penalties.

However, by avoiding criminal prosecution, the company would still be eligible to compete for sometimes-lucrative public contracts in Canada and abroad.

Last fall, Ottawa held public consultations to explore whether to introduce such a regime.

The idea was also mentioned in Ottawa’s February budget, which said the government intended to introduce legislation for deferred prosecution agreements in the near future as another way “to hold corporate offenders to account.”

But the change is considered so significant that some finance committee members, including NDP MP Pierre-Luc Dusseault, urged the government to take more time to debate the change separately. The Liberals, he said, have refused to split the bill.

Dusseault said in an interview that he sees potential positive and negative consequences from the change, but added it’s hard to tell when the committee was only given 15 minutes to debate the change at around 9:45 p.m. last Tuesday night.

Making an amendment to the Criminal Code requires a lot of careful attention and finance committee isn’t the best place to do it, he said.

“Certainly, I think it was made to be made quietly,” said Dusseault, who added that governments sometimes tuck contentious changes like this one into large budget implementation bills.

During last week’s hearing, Conservative MP Dan Albas also called for the change to be examined separately from the budget legislation or to be studied by the justice committee.

“This is a fundamental departure from the way we handle the Criminal Code,” Albas said.

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https://www.thepostmillennial.com/feder ... ate-crime/

[Queen K]

Sadder than sad.

And yet for the "little people" to quote Martha Stewart, the preferred method of oppression keeps climbing: fining. Fines just keep skyrocketting for just about everything while punishment for corporate white collar crime is decreasing.

Poor underclass: Increased punishment designed to impovish.

Rich corporations: decreased oversight and punitative action.

We only vote for figureheads, no one votes for corporate powers.

[Gone_Fishin]

Trudeau is a complete corporatist. His pandering to the uber-rich with get out of jail free cards is beyond disgusting.