Finance committee  I would just say that I think that the devil will be in the detail in many respects. I think there appears to be quite a consensus perhaps emerging on the importance of addressing this issue within the legal profession, within the community, and among Canada's ministers of financ

Finance committee  It's not common at all. I know that the no-cash rule in the north encountered some challenges in smaller places, because sometimes you go into the community and somebody wants to retain a lawyer to do something and they only have cash because they don't often have ready access to

Finance committee  I think, Mr. McLeod, if the take-away is that there isn't any oversight, that's not accurate. I think there is oversight in ensuring the enforcement of the no-cash rule and the client identification rule, which mirror the federal rules and, in some cases, are stricter than the fe

Finance committee  Yes. I'm going to ask Ms. Wilson to answer that.

Finance committee  That's our understanding. One of the challenges of doing it at the local lawyer level is that every lawyer will have verification differently and the implementation will be uneven across the country. If there is a national registry—and I've read some of articles that you've done

Finance committee  Very much so.

Finance committee  That's correct. Lawyers can verify.... It makes verifying the beneficial ownership very, very challenging, because FINTRAC has said that simply asking your client—verification through your client—is not sufficient. There's no degree of enforcement. There's no degree of verify

Finance committee  The law societies are looking at enforcement of the rules that actually replicate or mirror what is contained federally. Rather than having enforcement occur through that vehicle, law societies are charged with enforcement, and those are things like cash and money laundering. Th

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Dusseault. That's an excellent question. In the regulatory world, a lawyer can commit an infraction of the rules intentionally, and that would be something that would be not only professional misconduct but likely also criminal misconduct. If somebody were knowing

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to provide comments in conjunction with your review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. By way of background, the federation is a coordinating body of th