OTTAWA FAILS TO DELIVER
Fintrac agency not co-operating with B.C. on inquiry into criminal money laundering
From the outset, Attorney General David Eby recognized that a public inquiry into criminal money laundering in B.C. would need the full co-operation of the federal government.
“We can't do it alone,” Eby said months before the inquiry was launched. “The criminal law is in the sole jurisdiction of the federal government. We really need the federal government on board.”
Canada's central clearing house for suspicious financial transactions is Fintrac, a federal agency. Also federal: the RCMP, its prosecution service, the port authorities, the banking regulators and the Canada Border Services Agency.
“The big challenge provincially is that so much of this is federal,” Eby reiterated a few weeks before the NDP government launched a provincial inquiry.
But by then B.C. believed that Ottawa was on side.
“The federal government will co-operate with us as required in this important work,” Eby told reporters at the May 15, 2019 media conference where the inquiry was announced.
Premier John Horgan said he had similar assurances from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Backing up those assumptions was a supportive statement from Bill Blair, the federal minister for organized crime reduction.
“Certainly we are absolutely committed to participating and co-operating fully with the work that will be done in B.C.,” Blair told Postmedia.
Would federal officials, including those from Fintrac, testify at the public inquiry if requested to do so? “Yes, of course,” Blair said.
But skeptical onlookers noted how it was one thing for national authorities to speak the language of co-operation in what was, after all, a federal election year.
It would be quite another for standoffish and secretive federal agencies to freely surrender documents, data and testimony to a provincial inquiry that might end up blaming and shaming them.
The withholding concerns were borne out last week, with release of the interim report from the inquiry headed by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen.
Cullen complained at length about the holdups in getting what he needed from federal agencies.
“One area of particular concern involves Canada's compliance with its obligation to identify the nature and character of documents in its possession or control,” he wrote.
“Many federal agencies have been slow to comply with these obligations, and the lists that have been produced often appear to be incomplete. “
The biggest offender? “Fintrac's initial list of documents was composed entirely of materials that were publicly available on its website,” Cullen wrote. “When commission counsel raised that point, Fintrac added a total of seven documents to its list and took the position that its document production obligations were complete.”
Cullen went on to lament that “many of the documents produced by Canada have been redacted to the point that they provide no meaningful information.”
Nor was the federal government allowing commission staff ready access to members of the public prosecution service. Instead, contact would be confined to questions submitted in advance and in writing.
“It seems apparent that federal prosecutors will have valuable insight into the challenges faced by law enforcement officials and prosecutors in the handling of money laundering offences,” the commissioner wrote.
“The approach taken by Canada will not allow these issues to be explored in an effective way.”
While acknowledging that Canada had lately “accelerated its document production and become more engaged with the work of the commission,” Cullen nevertheless flagged the earlier frustrations because of the central importance of federal co-operation in the fight against money laundering.
Those and other passages in the report provided a scales-fallingfrom-the-eyes experience for Eby, particularly as regards Fintrac.
“They've gone from being nearly useless to obstructive,” he told Simi Sara on CKNW radio on Friday.
“They're actually protecting the information they've collected in British Columbia about what's happening in our province and they're not providing it to the public inquiry into money laundering. They're the anti-money-laundering agency! They're the only people who do this. And it just drives me crazy.”
On receipt of the interim report from Cullen in mid-November, Eby shared his concerns with federal minister Blair.
“I called him up and I was very agitated about what was going on,” Eby said. “And he said `hold on Dave, I'm on your side. I will do what I can to get these guys — they're a quasi-independent agency — I will do what I can to get these guys moving on this.'”
Blair also assured Eby that Ottawa would finally be moving on providing more money for policing in B.C., particularly for the fight against money laundering.
With those assurances, Eby is inclined to give Ottawa a second chance: “I am very hopeful that we're going to hear very soon from the feds about this policing announcement.”
But it fell to Cullen to highlight the consequences if the federal government doesn't live up to the promise of co-operation with the commission.
“In order for me to most effectively address the complex problem of money laundering in this province, I will need the engagement and co-operation of both the provincial and the federal governments,” he wrote in the closing passage of the interim report.
“Unless and until the commission receives answers to its questions, its ability to understand and fully engage with the issues may be compromised, and its ability to make well-informed recommendations to address those issues may be correspondingly affected.” Last chance, Fintrac. Otherwise the blaming and shaming could lead directly to your doorstep.
Cullen complained ... about the holdups in getting what he needed from federal agencies.