Finance committee  Dear Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the committee's review. I will make my remarks in English. However, I will be pleased to answer your questions in French or in English. I have worked for the past 30

Finance committee  I think the law societies are aware of that and they're working toward that. I would say that fewer than 1% of lawyers are doing that, but it's just unfortunate. Technically, what they're doing is totally legal; they're not going against the law. It's the same thing in comparison

Finance committee  Charges?

Finance committee  At the moment, most authorities have to have a very detailed case for their— prosecutors. They often decide that the case is not detailed enough. They have to be able to show a link between the person receiving the money and the sources of money, which can become very complicat

Finance committee  Unfortunately, I do not.

Finance committee  Yes, in two ways. The first one, I think, would be in terms of the solicitor-client privilege and the fact that if for some of the transactions we can show there's an intent of doing something wrong, then it would not fall under the solicitor-client privilege. That would help. A

Finance committee  I think so, yes. Clearly. In all the research and reporting into the matter internationally, everyone agrees that Canada is one of the best places to launder money. It has almost become one of our economic claims to fame. You just have to think of Vancouver and Toronto, where th

Finance committee  I think Ms. Saperia talked about that earlier. We have to work together with other countries. We are not the only ones facing this problem. England, the United States and Australia have much stricter rules than ours. We have to work with others to determine the best practices. Th

Finance committee  Lawyer-client privilege will always be with us, of course, and there are reasons for that. However, as you mentioned, law societies are considering how they could impose internal regulations on their members, especially by following their code of conduct. One distinction needs t

Finance committee  I would say it's all about whether the transaction makes sense. Does the person who is actually buying have that amount of money? We saw, a couple of months ago in Vancouver, a young student who had a condo worth $27 million. When they asked the student where he got the money, he

Finance committee  That's right.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak at this hearing. I am a chartered professional accountant and a forensic accounting specialist. Over the course of my career, I have investigated various cases related to allegations of corruption, fraud, fi

Finance committee  It is hard to offer an opinion on that because we do not exactly know what information was shared. I believe the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner might be able to answer that question. However, in my view, there is no question that we must always be transparent and di

Finance committee  I believe so, yes. I believe they had to disclose that situation, that they believed they were in a conflict of interest, whether potential or apparent, and then get an opinion, likely from the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, as to whether that was the case. I agre

Finance committee  With respect to due diligence, as you mentioned, I believe it was important for senior officials to gather the information and ask themselves whether the organization was able to deliver the expected result and whether the financial structure used made it possible to complete the