Department of Justice

G8 MINISTERS STEP UP ACTION AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME -
CANADA A KEY PLAYER IN THE FIGHT

OTTAWA, December 15, 1998 - Fighting organised crime and combating terrorist funding are priorities for the Government of Canada. These issues were the main topics of the G8 meeting of Ministers of Justice and the Interior today.

Canada plays an active role in G8 and other international fora to fight organised crime and terrorism. Over the past year, initiatives undertaken by the Department of Justice and the Ministry of the Solicitor General have made Canada a key player in international efforts to confront organised crime at home and abroad. The Government will introduce anti-money laundering legislation in early 1999 and is also developing a strategy on terrorist financing, which includes looking at options to curb the abuse of charities by terrorist organizations.

Progress on Canada’s efforts against international crime include:

• modernizing the Extradition Act (Bill C-40) to accommodate other legal systems more readily, such as making Canadian rules of evidence easier to apply to evidence gathered in other countries. New legislation is also underway to allow Canada to give or receive evidence in criminal and extradition procedures by video or telephone link;
  
  
• creating new Competition Act offences (Bill C-20) to combat telemarketing by making "deceptive telemarketing" an offence. Further amendments that will make the proceeds subject to seizure are now before the Senate (Bill C-51);
  
  
• enacting the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act that will help combat corruption in international business. Canada will set a precedent by being among the first members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to ratify the OECD anti-corruption Convention;
  
  
• establishing a 24-hour network of contact in G8 and other countries to respond quickly to mutual legal assistance requests involving high-tech crimes; and
  
  
• improving dialogue between law enforcement and high-tech industry to ensure effective cooperation in crime prevention and investigation.

Canada is supporting the development of a United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and will take a lead role next year in coordinating proposals for a protocol on illicit firearms trafficking. Other protocols to the Convention give high priority to controlling the smuggling of economic migrants for profit and of women and children in the sex trade.

Canada has undertaken extensive work to implement the 25 counter-terrorism measures agreed to at the G8 Ministerial Meeting in Paris in 1996. In particular, information-sharing arrangements have been strengthened considerably. Canada also continues to play an instrumental role in developing recent international counter-terrorism treaties dealing with the suppression of terrorist bombing; countering nuclear terrorism; and the suppression of terrorist financing.

A joint press release was issued by G8 Ministers at the conclusion of today’s conference (see attached).

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Ref.:

Donald Piragoff
Department of Justice
(613) 957-4730

Jim Harlick
Department of the Solicitor General
(613) 993-4136

This news release is also available on Internet:
Department of the Solicitor General: www.sgc.gc.ca