Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not an American lawyer, but my understanding is, first of all, that the FCPA contains an express facilitation payments exception. Guidance that I downloaded from the U.S. DOJ, I think it was, last night confirms this. As far as the SEC is concerned, my understanding is that

Foreign Affairs committee  What happened at the CBA was that our charities law section was given the ability to provide input to other briefs that we prepared. We have not consulted very widely, however. The timelines for this bill were very narrow when it first appeared in the Senate. We did what we could

Foreign Affairs committee  Section 121 of the Criminal Code establishes an offence for bribing a broad range of government officials. Subsection 121(3) says that the imprisonment is five years.

Foreign Affairs committee  In some cases, it's more. Generally, it's five years.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's correct. The penalty will be less after this legislation. I don't know what the plans are with the Criminal Code. You'd have to ask....

Foreign Affairs committee  I would assume it would apply to companies publicly listed in the United States, as opposed to private companies or NGOs.

Foreign Affairs committee  All right. The commentaries to the OECD treaty that are still in force say that small facilitation payments do not fall within the prohibition in the treaty. The most recent guidance—

Foreign Affairs committee  It's not defined. Paragraph 9 of the 1997 commentaries says “small 'facilitation' payments do not constitute payments to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage”. That is the reason I said earlier that it's not clear whether or not those payments would be prohibited

Foreign Affairs committee  I assume that's directed at me.

Foreign Affairs committee  It is a discrepancy. It could be resolved in one of two ways. One would be to increase the penalty for domestic corruption to 14 years, which would involve the same issues I've described that reduce the discretion of judges in sentencing, or it could be resolved by having some lo

Foreign Affairs committee  Right. Well, I think it's fair to allow some time to phase in to allow companies to adopt appropriate compliance programs. That aspect of it is fair. But even once it comes into force there will be ambiguities because there's a real issue as to whether or not a facilitation paym

Foreign Affairs committee  It doesn't create a legal problem. The ultimate effect is the same: it will be repealed, and the repeal will be brought into force when the Governor in Council decrees. It's really a question of what the optimal way of passing legislation is. From the standpoint of having the iss

Foreign Affairs committee  If an NGO is engaged in business, then it will no longer be exempt under this act. It doesn't mean that NGOs or charities will always be subject to the act; they will only be subject to the extent that they are involved in business. Business is defined in the bill as “any busines

Foreign Affairs committee  There is no minimum here. We're talking 14 years. A judge can impose a sentence from a few days up to the maximum of 14 years. But some of the outcomes that are currently available in the Criminal Code would not be possible after this new maximum comes into force. What would not

Foreign Affairs committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair, and honourable members. The Anti-Corruption Team of the Canadian Bar Association shares the convictions expressed in Bill S-14. As expressed in the Convention, bribery in international business transactions raises serious moral and political concerns, un