C-289 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code (identity verification) – would make it an offence to knowingly providing false or misleading information (including omission) regarding identity verification under the Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.
This new offence could be charged by summary conviction or could be an indictable offence. In the case of summary conviction the punishment is up to $10,000 and/or two years of prison. If indicted the punishment is up to $1 million and/or ten years of prison time.
The specific situations where this Bill applies includes things like banks, credit unions, trust companies, loan companies, foreign exchange, etc. Basically you can’t falsify your identity when dealing with money.
Second Reading
C-289 failed its Second Reading vote with 149 in favour and 171 against, and as such won’t proceed.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 2 | 147 | 2 |
| Conservative | 114 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 29 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 0 | 24 | 0 |
| Green Party | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The Liberals argue that solving the problem of money laundering and the falsifying of information to accomplish it require coordination between all levels of government, as well as between countries. It looks like in the budget this year they’ll be establishing a Canada financial crimes agency, and they don’t feel that this Bill sufficiently covers the issue. (They call out things like laundering and fraud with cryptocurrency, which C-289 wouldn’t have much of an impact on)
The Bloc point out that there’s very little vigilance on the part of existing systems such as FINTRAC to spot money laundering, and unless a suspicious transaction is spotted it’s easy for people to get away with it. They feel that making it illegal to provide false/incomplete information during these transactions will help catch instances of money laundering. (The idea is that you’ll now be forced to provide accurate information or face criminal penalties.) They make reference to the Cullen commission, a report that found that money laundering is currently a massive industry and not nearly enough is being done about it.
The NDP also talk about the Cullen commission, specifically how C-289 isn’t on its list of recommendations to deal with money laundering. They point out that the number of prosecutions of reported suspicious transactions is nearly nonexistent, so there’s no reason to believe adding an extra charge is going to result in more enforcement.
Worth noting that the Liberal MPs that voted in favour of C-289 are Ali Ehsassi (Ontario, Willowdale) and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Ontario, Beaches—East York).