Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee.
On behalf of the directors of the Canadian Justice Review Board, I wish to thank the committee members for providing the opportunity to appear here this afternoon. I've provided the committee clerk with a brief that highlights our concerns in more detail, and I understand you have received copies of it electronically.
The key point that I would like to emphasize is that Bill C-52 deals only with the sentencing aspect of an otherwise very lengthy process, and by its nature, it already provides many opportunities to avoid sentencing in the long run.
The brief contains a list of some of the many possible escape routes. I hope you will review and consider those in terms of the content of this legislation. My friend here has alluded to some of those escape routes.
Yesterday's Ottawa Citizen carried an opinion piece from Mr. James Morton, entitled “We need 21st-century law”. Mr. Morton is, among other things, an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall. In my opinion, a key passage in his article touched on the matters being considered here today. Mr. Morton asks, “Is crime really best dealt with by prisons?” He answers the question by saying that in some cases—white-collar crime—probably yes, but in other cases, as with most drug-related crime, probably not. But here we're dealing with white-collar crime. Bill C-52 seeks to address white-collar crime and it does so in the general context of the criminal justice system's goal of preventing crime.
Fraud has a legal definition in the Criminal Code, but fraud can be very difficult to prove. If the goal is to prevent damage to society, and more specifically financial damage, then perhaps it's time to define in the Criminal Code some of the other undesirable white-collar activities—for example, creative accounting. In my opinion, this bill would be considerably improved if it did that.
If we were speaking of fraud alone, then the Canadian Justice Review Board submits that a two-year prison term is not an effective deterrent, especially given our current parole board policies. We ask that you, as legislators, consider a mandatory five-year sentence.
Ms. Hazel Magnussen, who is a colleague of mine operating in Victoria, British Columbia, who is also the secretary of the Canadian Justice Review Board, specializes in victims' rights issues. Over the past two years or more, she has been conferring with the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, Mr. Steve Sullivan, and also with our own board member Professor Ted DeCoste. As a result, they designed a curriculum that Ted DeCoste was able to introduce for law students at the University of Alberta that raises awareness of victims' rights.
Since Mr. Sullivan may also be appearing in front of this committee, I don't want to steal any of his thunder, but I would like to point out that the Canadian Justice Review Board agrees with sentiments he expressed in a November press release. He said:
I am pleased to see the federal government moving forward on important victims’ issues like financial crime and restitution...I am however concerned that the restitution piece of this new legislation applies only to victims of fraud. We need to ensure that we are supporting all victims who may have been devastated financially as a result of a crime.
If I may, I'd like to return quickly to the comments I made a few moments ago and reiterate that this legislation would be greatly improved if it brought within the ambit of the Criminal Code some of these other socially unacceptable practices often associated with what we might call the financial industry, and also legislated significant penalties for those behaviours, including restitution.
Fraud is not the only problem. I believe it's very upsetting, or depressing, for the general public to hear or read about major financial swindles and then learn that even those fraudsters who admit guilt receive what many consider to be laughable sentences, such as house arrest or early six-month parole.
What Bill C-52 should be doing is restoring public confidence in the justice system by giving society a legal framework that applies to the 21st century's financial world.
In closing, I would like to thank the committee again for the invitation to appear. I trust that you will give some consideration as to the recommendations we've made.
Thank you.