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.
