Prosecute the bosses, not SNC-Lavalin
The current SNC-Lavalin story raises an interesting point about corporate criminal responsibility. The law has created a legal fiction that a corporation can be prosecuted. It is fiction in that a corporation exists only on paper. It does not think on its own, nor does it act on its own. It needs people for that.
Charging a corporation is a bit like charging a car for someone’s careless driving. Further, by the time the case gets to trial, especially given our “speedy” justice system, the key players may have changed and, indeed, some of the lessthan-clean corporate bosses may actually testify against the nefarious corporation.
The shareholders, who have no way of knowing the evil deeds of the corporation, will most certainly have changed, yet they get punished through a fall in the value of their investment. So, what is gained by charging and possibly convicting the legal fiction?
It allows bigwig business types to avoid being prosecuted personally by hiding behind the corporation.
The state should prosecute people, not their car. Robert Prior, Prince Edward County, Ont. I cannot understand how SNC-Lavalin, the company, can be found guilty of corruption, nor do I understand why the junior employees, shareholders and indeed the country should be punished. I own shares in many companies, but I only have a crude understanding of their business. Enbridge owns pipelines and supplies gas to my house; Toromont sells earthmoving equipment; Johnson & Johnson sells BandAids, TD is a bank; etc.
A corporation does not have a brain, a soul or a moral compass. It cannot feel shame — or pride.
Instead, I would like to see the top officers of SNC-Lavalin and the board of directors prosecuted for corruption. If found guilty, they should be made to personally pay fines and perhaps be jailed. Finally, they should be barred from holding high office in any company for a decade.
I can see that approach putting an immediate stop to corruption, but it would not punish the company, most of whose employees must be blameless. More important, it would cause minimal damage to a major Canadian company and to people like myself who invest in the company to provide retirement income. Peter Bursztyn, Barrie