SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 187

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 187 - Apr/28/23
Mr. Ken Hardie (Fleetwood—Port Kells, Lib.)
  • Apr/28/23 12:27:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was fascinated to hear the hon. member talk about some of the transactions between lawyers, because we know that transactions between lawyers' trust accounts are not captured by FINTRAC. Is he strongly in favour of changing that? The other thing I would ask him to comment on is the beneficial ownership of broadcast outlets in Canada, because there are concerns about Chinese meddling. We have heard, at least anecdotally, that their control over radio and television and cable stations, if it is not ownership, is certainly something else. Is that also worth a closer look in connection with this bill?
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Context: House Hansard - 187 - Apr/28/23
Mr. Greg McLean
  • Apr/28/23 12:28:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will not address the Broadcasting Act, because I am not sure that should be covered here or should be covered in a different bill, but I will address what the member talked about regarding lawyers' trust accounts. Lawyers' trust accounts are not held to the same standard as financial transactions. I remember that, in the financial industry, if $10,000 in cash came into one's account, one had to report that to FINTRAC authorities immediately. If one was at a brokerage, $1,000 of cash was actually the hurdle. Money laundering actually happens at places like currency exchanges, where people walk in with a thousand bucks and will exchange $999 and effectively do it that way. We do need to include the trust from lawyers in here. We will watch them fight it again in the Supreme Court, but making sure we bring them under the umbrella of what is acceptable for money-laundering mechanisms in Canada is very important.
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