Section 4: Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, PC) -- 1998
Section 4: Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, PC--pre merger of CA-PC political parties), Apr. 30, 1998
Narcotics, drug related money laundering, organized crime-OMG's
[. . . . ] Mr. Peter MacKay (Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, PC):
[. . . . ] The solicitor general has repeated his pledge from last summer and again last fall to introduce new legislation on money laundering and cross-border currency controls. The fact remains that to date we have not seen that. There has been a great deal of consultation, which again I believe is a very important part of the process, but I would encourage the solicitor general to act on these initiatives.
[. . . . ] There continue to be huge loopholes in the federal legislation, particularly when we look at what Canada has done compared to other countries.
As an example I would cite the U.S. State Department's report, “International Narcotics Control Strategy”, which singled out Canada as an easy target for drug related and other types of money laundering. The report goes on to compare Canada to countries like Columbia, Brazil and the Cayman Islands as countries which are open to money laundering and places to hide illegal money.
[. . . . ] The problem remains. In the 10 months since the solicitor general has taken this post there have been many promises made, but we have yet to see the delivery of those promises. Canada continues to be open for business as far as organized crime is concerned.
[. . . . ] (1025)
He also told us that he was going to bring biker gangs to their knees and eradicate organized crime.
[. . . . Scott Newark, the executive director of the Canadian Police Association] offered this statement very recently to the solicitor general: “Anyone can talk tough. Let's see some action. Here is a guy who has some power, but I have not seen him exercise it yet”.
Immigration Act, the Extradition Act and the Official Secrets Act, Organized Crime and lack of resources
[. . . . ] The solicitor general outlined specifically some of the positive measures of his department and the initiatives to improve national security that would result in changes to our Immigration Act, the Extradition Act and the Official Secrets Act, among other statutes. I would certainly hope that these measures do not have a long shelf life.
What has been done since in the area of "initiatives to improve national security that would result in changes to our Immigration Act, the Extradition Act and the Official Secrets Act"?
[. . . . ] Certainly in Canada we have seen a rise in the area of organized crime. . . . Page 9 of the 1997 CSIS public report states: “There are many activities in addition to the traditional threat activities which cause or have the potential to cause threats to the public safety of Canadians and the national security of Canada”. Therefore, our focus may have to shift on the internal threats posed by organized crime.
In conclusion, I applaud the engagements of the solicitor general on behalf of CSIS to form intelligence activities, to enhance the protection of computer infrastructure, to review our counter-terrorism strategies and to apprise the government of foreign and domestic activities which may compromise public security. However, with that said, I am still concerned about the lack of resources to effectively implement these very laudable plans. Since the government took office in 1993 there have been more than 700 employees cut from CSIS, more than one-quarter of the total workforce. [. . . . ]
(1030)
Subsequently, the Solicitor General, Andy Scott, resigned over a conversation on an airplane concerning the APEC summit and the pepper spray incident. What action was taken on the above items? From the other sections, it seems, not much.
Check the reports mentioned in my post Oct. 15, 04 and the items in Sections 5 and 6 for more on our security situation today.
