Thank you to the committee, and thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the invitation to be here, and hopefully we can provide some opinions that will be of assistance to you in your work.
I have to say, at the outset, that the opinions I express are mine alone, not those of the international centre, nor of the Province of British Columbia. I suspect the reason I'm here is the result of the attorney general's visit. My briefing note actually was provided to the committee by the attorney general.
Just to give you a little bit of a background, I'm a lawyer, former deputy commissioner of the RCMP, and former deputy commissioner of federal corrections. My doctoral work was in asset recovery of money stolen by kleptocrats in the developing world, getting that money back to the developed world. I'm the author of a text on money laundering, Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering, which has been in publication for about 20 years and remains current. I was most recently commissioned by the Attorney General of British Columbia to inquire into allegations of money laundering in our casinos. I come to you today with that as a background, with that as a perspective. If I may, I'll take five or so minutes to give you a few thoughts.
The task you have in front of you, committee, is actually a very important one. I'm sure you're aware of that. This proceeds of crime legislation is important on any number of fronts. I don't wish to start on a negative note, but I will. There are some fundamental problems with our enforcement regime. Canada itself really has not too much to be proud of when it comes to dealing with money laundering. Canada has been a follower rather than a leader internationally. This is nothing new. This has been going on for some 20 years, since 1989 when proceeds of crime legislation first came in.
The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act is good legislation as far as it goes, but again Canada tends to always be following the lead of other countries—the United Kingdom, the United States—always getting pushed by the FATF, always getting pushed by the OECD—