Ian Mulgrew: Betrayal underlines ties in dirty-money debate

Kash Heed should have known the bromance that started nearly 40 years ago would end in tears — he was with the Vancouver Police Department, Fred Pinnock the RCMP.

Kash Heed should have known the bromance that started nearly 40 years ago would end in tears — he was with the Vancouver Police Department, Fred Pinnock the RCMP.

Still, who would have predicted such an embarrassing breakup — one feeling utterly betrayed, the other considered a disgruntled ex-cop with a chip on his shoulder.

The unseemly episode spoke of the complicated relationships and, in some cases, long-standing gripes among police and regulators muddying the dirty-money debate.

For some, like Pinnock, this was never a policy debate, it was a chance for payback.

Ian Mulgrew: First casualty in dirty money war — privacy

Panel: From “a distributive justice perspective we have not struck the right balance in this country … this can be done sensibly.”

Canada is apparently luring hundreds of mafiosi, kleptocrats, cartel chiefs and corrupt exiles to this country thanks to its failure to tackle money laundering.

It’s seemingly one of the most financially secret countries in the world and a large part of the supposed cure — more intrusive and wider law-enforcement surveillance powers — will require a radical rethink of privacy rights.

The panel commissioned by the Cullen inquiry into money laundering described the situation as akin to the frustration police felt when fettered from responding to a domestic abuse complaint because a man’s home was his castle.

Back then, the victims were women and children, now it’s the public who are being harmed by wrongly held privacy concerns, according to the experts — Christian Leuprecht, professor at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada; Garry Clement, former national director of the RCMP proceeds-of-crime section; Arthur Cockfield of Queen’s University; and Jeffrey Simser, co-author of Civil Asset Forfeiture in Canada.

Ian Mulgrew: B.C. Liberals didn’t ‘turn a blind eye’ to money laundering, de Jong tells inquiry

The previous Liberal government has been the victim of an intentionally misleading narrative, former cabinet minister Mike de Jong insisted Friday at the inquiry into money laundering.

The previous Liberal government was not wilfully blind to dirty money and has been the victim of an intentionally misleading narrative, former cabinet minister Mike de Jong insisted Friday at the inquiry into money laundering.

“That’s just not true,” he emphasized.

“I never saw, heard, and — I’ve been at this for a while, with some pretty good antennae — but I never saw or heard anything that would suggest people weren’t interested in addressing this or were trying to turn a blind eye. I have had people on the phone in the last few years in tears because of the suggestion that’s what happened or that’s what they did.

“I hope ultimately, Mr. Commissioner, you will be persuaded through the volumes and volumes of documents, studies, actions that there was an attempt, a serious attempt made to not just understand the issue better but to address the issue … I’m one of those people who has felt the sting and the frustration of hearing repeatedly that nothing was done when there are thousands and thousands of pages of evidence that suggest quite the contrary, in my view.”

Ian Mulgrew: No one blind to dirty money, Coleman insists

“At no time did I have police in B.C. tell me to my face they were under-resourced. The funding for police has been very good.”

At public meetings launching the Cullen commission into money laundering, some denounced former provincial solicitor-general Rich Coleman as if he were a Great Satan — an avatar of all the Liberal failures.

After two years of investigation, Coleman on Wednesday left the commission’s online witness window having proven why he was re-elected often and a senior minister for so long. His critics must have been deflated.

Forget about no smoking gun, Coleman sounded confident, forthright and in command of the issues he confronted as a cabinet minister for nearly two decades — especially about dirty money.

The former deputy premier from 2013 to 2017 said it was ridiculous that anyone believed his party was willfully blind to criminal activity in casinos, or that the government was more concerned about revenue.

Ian Mulgrew: David Eby’s evolution on dirty money

Eby said it took him time to fully understand the dynamic and tensions between key players — the RCMP, the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch and the B.C. Lottery Corp.

B.C. Attorney-General David Eby says his understanding of dirty money and how it infiltrates the provincial economy has developed over time and has been quite “a journey.”

He told the inquiry into money laundering this week that, despite his time as opposition critic, when given responsibility for gaming in 2017 he did not fully appreciate the nuances of the industry’s legislative, law enforcement and regulatory apparatus.

Eby said it took him time to fully understand the dynamic and tensions between key players — the RCMP, the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, and the B.C. Lottery Corp.

At first, the NDP minister was puzzled — how could anyone wash money through casinos?