OTTAWA, March 30, 2004 - The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Irwin Cotler, announced today that Bill C-13, targeting capital markets fraud, has received Royal Assent.

"Today we have sent a strong message that capital markets fraud will be treated as a serious corporate crime. Those who commit such offences will be held accountable and will face stiffer penalties, while whistleblowers will be protected from intimidation," said Minister Cotler. "These reforms will help assure Canadians and investors that Canada's markets are safe and secure."

The new law makes the following changes to the Criminal Code:

• creates a new Criminal Code offence of improper insider trading that will target employees of corporations and others who use privileged information not available to other investors in order to benefit themselves;
  
• protects employees who report unlawful conduct within their corporation from retaliation by creating a new offence to deter employment-related intimidation;
  
• raises maximum sentences for fraud and existing market-related offences and establishes aggravating factors to assist the courts in determining a sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crime;
  
• establishes concurrent jurisdiction that will provide federal prosecutorial authority over fraud and certain market-related offences. This will be applied to cases that threaten the national interest in the integrity of our capital markets. The exercise of this jurisdiction will be based on a partnership approach in accordance with agreed upon protocols and would thus provide additional resources in regard to these cases; and
  
• adds production orders to the Criminal Code, which will enhance the evidence-gathering tools available to investigators for all criminal offences by allowing them to obtain pertinent documents or data from third parties within a specified time period.

An online version of the legislation is available at www.parl.gc.ca.

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Ref.:

Denise Rudnicki
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Justice
(613) 992-4621

Media Relations
Department of Justice Canada
(613) 957-4207