Liberals’ plan for new financial crimes agency raises questions about RCMP role
Global News
Budget 2022 proposed setting up a new law enforcement agency to investigate 'complex and fast-moving cases of financial crime,' a role currently held by the RCMP.
The Liberals’ proposal to set up a new law enforcement body to tackle financial crime is raising questions about the RCMP’s role in investigating money laundering and organized crime.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2022 budget, released Thursday, included a passing mention of plans to set up a Canada Financial Crimes Agency. The new law enforcement agency would be tasked with “quickly (responding) to complex and fast-moving cases of financial crime.”
It’s the latest in a series of attempts by the Liberal government to crack down on financial crimes and to come up with a co-ordinating body that can bring the necessary expertise to bear on complex investigations.
That’s a role currently held by the Mounties, who investigate money laundering, track the resources and assets of organized crime, and investigate “serious fraud and corruption” – among other finance-related crimes.
According to a government source, who agreed to discuss the initiative on the condition they not be named, it has yet to be decided whether the agency would be a stand-alone law enforcement agency – with the ability to lay charges – or a co-ordinating body assisting in financial crimes investigations.
The scale of financial crime in Canada is difficult to estimate. But Jessica Davis, a security consultant and former Canadian security official, said financial crime in Canada is “pervasive” and that “we don’t know” the extent of the issue.
“To me, (the Financial Crimes Agency) seems a little bit like setting up this new agency to solve all the problems that we refuse to solve otherwise,” Davis said in an interview.
“Resources to investigate, expertise to investigate. Depending on how it’s structured, I have a bit more optimism that we could maybe at least protect the expertise within a financial crimes agency instead of the RCMP.”
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