Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak a second time about the bill that is before us today, which deals with money laundering and financing terrorist activities. The Bloc Québécois will support this bill, as it has indicated and as it has always supported sound bills.
The Bloc Québécois has a history of fighting against crime. Hon. members will recall the work done in 1993 by the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot with regard to people who were growing marijuana in fields in Saint-Hyacinthe and farmers throughout Quebec. It was a tough battle, which the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot led very energetically.
We have also talked about the reversal of the burden of proof with respect to proceeds of crime. This is a great victory by the Bloc Québécois. The Bloc Québécois has also helped toughen anti-gang legislation, making it easier for police to fight organized crime gangs. Our commitment to fighting crime extends to money laundering and international terrorism. That is why the Bloc will support this bill.
When I spoke for the first time about this bill in this House, I said that I would be taking a close look at privacy issues. I am fairly happy with what this bill does. We had discussions earlier in this House, and we also had discussions in committee about how we can fight effectively against crime and terrorist financing and yet protect people's privacy. I want to personally make sure that the bill does not have any loopholes. I am very happy that all the parties have reached agreement on this.
I would like to explain how FINTRAC works. This agency collects financial data on transactions in Canada and abroad and will continue to do so. Under this bill, more data will be collected and more companies will be required to disclose information to FINTRAC so that it can do its job properly.
To understand how this works, hon. members need to know that FINTRAC does not conduct investigations. It is not an investigating body, but an agency that gathers and analyzes information and passes it on to the proper authorities.
With respect to collecting information, the legislation provides that banks and insurance companies, as well as other financial institutions and organizations, must report a certain number of transactions to FINTRAC. Obviously, we are talking about large transactions that involve a lot of money. Any transaction that appears odd or suspicious must be reported and added to the FINTRAC database.
Then the information is analyzed. Analysts look for connections that suggest some kind of fraud has been committed. They use two techniques to do this. The first is searching the data for patterns in the volume of financial transactions, which makes it possible to spot activities typical of people attempting to launder money or finance terrorist activities. Clearly, it makes sense to centralize this information.
It makes sense because a single transaction might appear quite ordinary, but finding connections among series of transactions can alert analysts to suspect illegal activity.
The first way to detect illegal activity is to analyze the data collected in order to identify typical patterns.
The second is voluntary disclosure by entities, police forces or security forces that suspect illegal activity. Voluntary disclosure can happen anytime.
I will conclude my remarks after question period.