Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. Obviously, this will make things much easier. In fact, now, the Crown has to produce evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that the accused acquired some of his assets as the result of criminal activities.
When we talk about the “balance of probabilities”, we are looking at the bare facts. The accused will have to explain to Revenue Canada, for example, or Revenue Québec or the Ministry of Finance of Ontario—since the problem of marijuana growers and drug traffickers is in Ontario too because the Hells Angels are in Ontario—how he acquired $25,000 or $30,000 in earnings over the past five years, a home worth half a million dollars, a country house worth $250,000 and two Mercedes, three Harley-Davidsons and so on, and how his wife, who has no known employment, has acquired assets of almost equal value. He will have to provide clear proof.
The balance of probabilities means that, considering all the probabilities, including the lifestyle and employment of the accused, the following question remains: is it possible for a normal person—with the exception of a lottery winner, which is easily verified—to own so much. At that point, things will proceed quickly. In fact, the process will be a bit more normal than it is now with the notion of “beyond all reasonable doubt”, because the Crown is under the obligation to produce hundreds, if not thousands, of pages, incredible amounts of research, and public funds are used to better serve the criminals once again.
Furthermore, it is scandalous that, during the megatrial following the police operation in the spring of 2001, some judge somewhere decided, with all due respect, to increase legal aid fees for the Hells Angels Nomad chapter to $125 per hour for its defence. This is a complete outrage. I hope this will not happen in the future.