Justice committee  Currently, the Criminal Code has two offences that are charged in these circumstances for match-fixing that is identified. Those offences typically are cheating at play, which is a potential one, but more commonly, fraud, which is under subsection 380(1) of the Criminal Code. T

Justice committee  At this time, my comment would be that the Supreme Court has ruled that these offences are applicable, but I would say that the committee could look to other jurisdictions and also measures at the UN and other international organizations where there are calls for specific offence

Justice committee  I think it would be fair to say that match-fixing already occurs and it would still occur after, and that provinces and territories and the prosecution services and investigation services would have to focus on learning more about match-fixing and preventing it. As with all crime

Justice committee  I would say that we have seen it in recent examples with the Criminal Code. There are certainly arguments to be made, and data is still being generated in those examples. I think it's generally a fair statement to say that people are going to be attracted to a system that is regu

Justice committee  It's fair to say, as a general statement, that the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada makes that link. Establishing a system and moving some of that betting activity will cut funding to organized crime to some extent. As we see with the CPMA now, integrated investigators at the

Justice committee  Yes, to keep it relatively simple, the only form of legalized betting on horse racing currently in Canada is through the parimutuel system. There's a bit of confusion—rightfully so—because the term “parimutuel” is very expansive, and it could encompass a lot of different forms of

Justice committee  There are two potential impacts, I suppose. One is that allowing single-event sports betting on hockey games, let's say, could still attract the betting audience away from horse racing. That is one possibility. It might be a low possibility, but it is one to consider. The sec

Justice committee  Exactly. When you go to Woodbine, it is single-event sports betting, because it's the outcome of a single race, and it's parimutuel betting, which is pool based, and the odds that you see are not fixed. Those odds will change up until the point that the race starts. You can place

Justice committee  I suppose I can answer that question. Under either of the bills that are before the House, Bill C-218 or Bill C-13, we don't have a way to say that all illegal betting would be brought into a legal market.

Justice committee  First of all, on the link to organized crime, I think the best resource for the committee is the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada. They put out a public report on organized crime in Canada. In particular, the 2019 public report is just accessible off their website. It draws t

Justice committee  Yes, of course. I think one of the best resources is the State of New Jersey. In fact, committee members will find that there are reports I believe monthly from the Office of the Attorney General in New Jersey. Since decriminalization in 2018, I believe, that state was at the for

Justice committee  I apologize; I just dropped out. Could the question be repeated?

Justice committee  The main difference is that, of course, Bill C-218 has a complete repeal of the paragraph. Bill C-13 would maintain most of the language. It would remove all of the references, other than that we would insert a reference essentially under that bill to horse racing. It completely

Justice committee  No, it does not change that.

Justice committee  I think, for the department, my colleague and I can say that it is likely, depending on how the provinces and territories set up their regulated spaces for single-event sports betting, that some of that activity that is occurring today would be brought into the regulated sphere.