Evidence of meeting #6 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Did you think that the Emergencies Act order in council granted on February 14 gave financial institutions the power to conduct unreasonable search and seizure?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, I did not.
In view of this scheme that was set up in the order, there were two manners in which financial institutions could find information. One was information provided by law enforcement, RCMP, and the other was if they saw suspicious activities while using their own internal resources.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
It's interesting that banks can freeze assets in people's accounts with judicial orders. Is there a reason why that wasn't pursued?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Well, the provincial courts had the jurisdiction to do that under the Criminal Code, but the federal government could not. As such, in view of the emergency and the extraordinary situation that was unrolling on the Hill and across the country—
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
I've stopped the time. I understand there's a technical difficulty. It looks like the French translation has gone to the English side and has vacated the French translation.
Is that correct, Senator Carignan?
Claude Carignan Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
I can't hear anyone on the interpretation channel.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
I'm going to ask the question again.
Can you hear the translation right now?
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Feel free to ask the question. When you finish asking the question, I'll restart the time.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I'm not quite sure where I was when I was interrupted.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Ms. Jacques, I'm going to allow for Mr. Motz to re-ask the question.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Actually, it wasn't going where I wanted her to go, so I will ask a different question. The bottom line is she can't answer the question because of obvious confidences.
Did you, Ms. Jacques or Mr. MacKillop, consult at all with the Privacy Commissioner on any of these matters related to the order in council, most specifically about part (c)(iii), which required crowdfunding platforms and payment processors to report certain transactions to FINTRAC?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I did not.
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
Thank you very much.
We will now move on to Ms. Bendayan for five minutes.
The floor is yours.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Thank you.
Just before starting my clock can I just point out that there was a problem with translation that prevented the witness's answer from being translated. Has that been resolved?
NDP
The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green
I believe it has. I believe it was just a switch issue, but in the event that there are any disruptions on your end, please do raise your hand and I'll stop the clock and allow for that to be fixed.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. MacKillop, I'll begin with you. Did FINTRAC freeze any bank accounts?
Deputy Director, Intelligence, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
No. FINTRAC does not have the authority or the power to freeze bank accounts.
Liberal
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, the government didn't freeze accounts. As you know, the financial institutions were responsible under the order for taking those kinds of measures if they considered them necessary.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I'd like to quote Angelina Mason on that point.
I'll do so in English for her quote. She is from the Canadian Bankers Association and she testified before the Standing Committee on Finance on March 7, that banks relied “on the names provided by the RCMP, but there were obligations under the order separate from that, which required banks to make their own determinations.”
Unless I'm mistaken, the financial institutions acted on information from the RCMP. Is that correct, Ms. Jacques?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Based on the facts subsequently reported to us, I'd say that, yes, most of the measures that were taken stemmed from information received from the RCMP. However, I know that, after determining without relying on the information provided by the RCMP, that transactions seemed suspicious and after making the appropriate checks, some financial institutions took action and froze certain accounts. However, based on what was reported to me, that didn't happen in most cases.