Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to Bill C-22 which deals with money laundering. As my colleagues on this side of the House have pointed out, this has been a long time coming from the government. We are the last of the G-7 countries to get around to doing something about money laundering.
One of the great scourges of our modern society is the illegal movement of products such as drugs. That has an effect on our society. It affects the minds of our young kids. They get themselves bent out of shape by using drugs. It ruins their careers. It ruins their futures, ruins their minds and ruins their potential. It also leads them into crime to generate the cash required to pay for the drugs and to keep the cartels supplied with billions of dollars in profits.
The proceeds of these drugs move through many countries in many ways in order to get into this country. People stand there with their hands out. They know it is illegal and illicit and therefore they are capable of demanding some kind of payment, a form of bribery, for them to turn their eyes in another direction as the drugs pass by. We in the House have talked about crime and how young kids feel the need to commit crimes such as shoplifting and a lot worse than that in many cases, in order to feed and pay for their habit.
I am glad the government is doing something about money laundering. Most of us have no real concept of how big the movement of drugs is and the amount of money, the billions of dollars that are moving around because of it. I understand that the largest cash based industry in British Columbia today is the growth of marijuana. The export of marijuana across the country and to other parts of the world is perhaps one of the largest industries in British Columbia today. That is shocking.
I have met with parliamentarians in other parts of the world. I am thinking of parliamentarians in South America. I recently attended a speech by our ambassador for Colombia who was here in Ottawa telling us about the situation there. We were told of the insurrection, the track that the government is losing control of its own country. In essence there is a civil war going on, not between two factions over who should rule the country, but the drug cartels do not want government anywhere near the growth of the drugs or the plants that produce the drugs. The cartels have their own air forces. They are able to fly the drugs out of South America through the Caribbean and up to the United States and Canada. This is a scourge on our society.
Money laundering is only one part of it. I want to broaden the debate. Money laundering deals with the movement of cash by illicit and illegal means but it is not just drugs we are talking about. We see bribery and corruption in all parts of the world. Believe it or not, Canada is not exempt; it happens here too. There are horrendous problems in South America. A year ago the commissioners of the European Union had to resign because of corruption. Members may have read about it in the paper. In Canada in the Prime Minister's riding, police investigations are going on because of potential misappropriation of government funds. If this is proven to be so, this would also be corruption. It is everywhere.
We read about it in the papers in the United States. Numerous elected officials in senior positions have been bought. I read one article just the other day regarding a governor who insisted on a $400,000 payment before he would vote in a certain way. It goes on. China has acknowledged that corruption is a major problem.
I would hope that we would start to do something about it. Transparency and openness is how to deal with bribery and corruption. It has to be brought out into the open so everybody can see what is going on. If a transaction cannot stand up to the light of day, it is likely illegal. If it is automatically going to be exposed in the light of day, it likely will not happen in the first place.
Look at what has happened with the HRDC scandal. Numerous audits were done and none of them were brought out into the open. On January 20 the last HRDC audit became part of the public debate. What has happened since then? The minister has told us that there has been a major review of all processes that go on in the department to ensure that the administration of the programs will now be done properly. Why were they not done properly before? Because there was no openness, no accountability and no transparency. We were not privy to the fact that previous audits had slammed that department and the administration of the files. It gets sloppy.
People with power and influence start using their influence and now numerous police investigations are going on. If these result in convictions, then that will show there has been corruption right here.
I am glad the world is finally waking up to the fact that bribery and corruption are perhaps the greatest scourge to economic development around the world. People with power and influence skim 10% and 20% right off the top and the money is going straight into Swiss bank accounts. There are also the people at the bottom end of the economic scale who, because they do not get paid enough money, have no choice but to insist on bribes for the work that they do or do not do.
In some cases we have people in positions of influence and power, such as policemen writing tickets or others granting permits, insisting on bribes to feed a large group of people or an extended family that depends on them for support because there is no cash in the economy.
We need economic development. We want to help the poor not only in this country but around the world. We can help the poor by attacking this cancer on society, the scourge of bribery and corruption. The OECD passed a protocol that was endorsed by a number of countries including Canada which says that bribery in a foreign country is no longer a tax deduction but a crime to be prosecuted in the home state. These are small beginnings.
I compare the current attitude on bribery and corruption to the position of society on the environment and human rights back in the 1960s. When we talked about the environment and our concern for the degradation of the environment in those days, people said that it was awful and asked why somebody did not do something about it. Then they would continue their daily routines.
It is 30 years later and the environment is now a core issue not only of this government and this country but of every developed country around the world. It is a core part of policy making. When they make policy the environment is a major consideration.
Human rights is the same. Back in the 1960s when people's human rights were being violated around the world, they would say it was awful and that somebody should do something about it, and they would continue their daily routines. Today we have war crimes tribunals. We have agreements and protocols. We insist on human rights when we enter into other agreements. Human rights is now a core principle of democracy.
I hope in a number of years, and hopefully not too many years from now, that the battle against bribery and corruption will also be at the core of civilized society in order for us to ensure that economic benefits accrue to all in society and that the cream or the profit is not ripped off illegally by those who happen to have power and influence.
It is everywhere. I have heard numerous examples, small and large. I will not bore the House with the details, but I would like to see the government and Canadians recognizing that bribery and corruption can and should be fought at every turn.
Bill C-22 on money laundering is a small start. I hope we will continue on from here and join forces with parliamentarians in other parts of the world to ensure that we carry the momentum forward so that in a number of years from now not only will we say that the environment and human rights are at the core of our policy making but that the fight against bribery and corruption is also at the core of our policy making.