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.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I would like that tabled in writing with the committee, please. There seem to be some members who do not understand those terms.
I would also like to ask any witness who would be comfortable answering whether any financial measure was applied retroactively. In other words, to your knowledge, were any banks engaged in the seizure or freezing...or any other action during the protest, prior to the invocation of the Emergencies Act?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No. Nothing was done retroactively, certainly not based on the order under the Emergencies Act.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Thank you.
I'd like to cede the remaining time to my colleague, Mr. Virani.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you.
Madam Jacques, the economic measures order in subsection 3(k) talks about “virtual currency”. Is that a reflection or a reference to things like cryptocurrency ?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes, it is.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Prior to the advent of the Emergencies Act invocation and this order that I'm looking at, did the government have any tools for regulating the flow of cryptocurrency for illegal activities in this country?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Not per se, but they were dispositions with respect to FINTRAC's ability to report on that.
I can maybe ask either Mr. MacKillop or Donna Achimov to complete the answer.
Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Mr. Chair, we have the ability, as of last year, to regulate virtual currency.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
What additional tools did this Emergencies Act portion of subsections 3(k) and 3(l) give you in terms of addressing the illegal blockades and the funding of them via cryptocurrency? What was added by this invocation?
Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Mr. Chair, what was added was the fact that we had crowdfunding and payment service providers added as reporting entities.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Okay, and that was through the invocation of the EA.
Can you give us a sense of the scale of cryptocurrency funding at the time of the invocation and that you're concerned about going forward? At the time of the blockades around the country, what was your sense of concern about cryptocurrency funding?
Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Mr. Chair, I don't believe we had necessarily a sense of cryptocurrency, per se. There were concerns about crowdfunding and payment service providers. Those were addressed as part of the Emergencies Act.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Was that concern accelerated when GoFundMe froze and started to return donations, but another entity called GiveSendGo, based out of the United States, was accumulating funds and directing them towards illegal blockades in this country?
Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Mr. Chair, I'm not in the position to comment on that. I'm not aware of that. It was solely the whole issue surrounding the fact that there was a gap with payment service providers and crowdfunding. That was addressed as part of the act.
Liberal
Arif Virani Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
The regulation that has since been enacted, after the invocation of declaration has ceased, regulates that situation on a go-forward basis. That's correct?
Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Mr. Chair, yes, that's correct. The Canada Gazette on April 27 added those business offerings of crowdfunding platforms and payment service providers as part of reporting entities, as well as businesses located in foreign jurisdictions that meet those criteria as set out in the act. They too have an obligation to register with FINTRAC as foreign money services businesses. That has been the case since June of 2020.
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Jacques, earlier, in response to questions from Mr. Motz, you gave two reasons that could justify declaring an emergency.
One of the two was to deter people from giving money to organizations intending to break the law, and the other was to prevent money being used to break the law. I may not have noted these down accurately. You answered in English, because the question had been in English. I therefore translated them from memory. Correct me If I got it wrong.
Are these indeed the two reasons you gave Mr. Motz?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I don't think that was a reason for invoking the Emergencies Act and the order.
Those are two things that help to deter people from continuing to give money for illegal purposes, and to continue to take part in illegal blockades.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, it was not to justify the order.
Once the decision was made, as I was saying, we were not involved in the decision to…
Bloc
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
No, I understand. Excuse me, but I just need to know whether I had noted down that these were, according to you, the two reasons.
I understand that's not the case. Okay.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
What I want to say is that these measures were introduced because it's the usual practice, but not why the Emergencies Act was invoked.
The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin
All right. But it's the reason why the measures we're talking about were put in place, the measures that are in the order.
The other question I'd like to ask you is the following.
In response to my colleague Senator Carignan, who asked approximately the same question, you said that the seizures had been done to encourage people to leave Parliament Hill. Have I got that right?
