Department of Justice

CANADA'S PROPOSED NEW EXTRADITION ACT

Canadians have expressed concerns about Canada's extradition laws. They want to prevent their country from becoming a safe haven for fugitives. Over the past few years, several high profile cases, such as Ng, Kindler, Maersk Dubai and the Narita Airport bombing, as well as concerns expressed by our extradition partners at the international level, have demonstrated a need to reform and modernize extradition law.

One of the major concerns with our current legislation is that Canada requires that countries requesting the extradition of a fugitive submit their request according to a fairly narrow approach to what is acceptable evidence. This creates real difficulty, especially for countries working within a civil law system; they rely on facts and accept a wider variety of forms of evidence.

Other concerns include the difficulty for Canada to meet its international obligations to an international criminal court or tribunal, as Canada cannot extradite a fugitive to such a body under the present regime.

When extradition legislation was adopted in Canada over 100 years ago, many forms of telecommunications we know today did not exist, nor did airplanes. The current legislation is silent on newer crimes (telemarketing fraud, theft of information by computer, using the Internet to commit an offence in another jurisdiction) and is not flexible enough to accommodate changes arising from the globalization of criminal activity (drug trade, organized or transborder crimes). The increased mobility of individuals is a reality that did not exist back then, and it makes the need for effective extradition relations with our international partners critical.

Following a comprehensive review and consultations with our many partners, the Extradition Act and the Fugitive Offenders Act required major changes to reflect today's procedures and practices. The Bill tabled today will provide a single Act that simplifies the extradition process in Canada for our partners who wish to extradite a fugitive from Canada to their country and, reciprocally, for Canada to bring back fugitives to face justice here. At the same time, the Bill provides enhanced protections and safeguards for persons who are the subject of an extradition request. The proposed legislation will make our extradition process more accessible to foreign states, bring our extradition procedures and practices closer to that of other countries and, most importantly, prevent Canada from becoming a safe haven for fugitives who want to avoid facing the justice system in countries where they commit crimes.

Attached is a chart outlining the major changes to the extradition process in Canada and the impact these changes will have on extradition operations for Canadian and foreign law enforcement authorities.