-Caveat Lector- ***** POC Plans: For BC Election 2005, Political Avatars under development; For BC Election 2009, Political Avatars run on trial basis; For Election 2013, Political Avatars with super-human AI online *****
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 18:12:53 -0800 (PST) From: Beata Raichle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ingram-Show-Past-And-Future] Bill C 22 Canadian Lawyers Forced To Be State Informants! November 23, 2001 -- Saying they do not want to see Canada's 81,000 lawyers turned into government informers, two legal heavyweights appeared in the Supreme Court of British Columbia yesterday to block a federal law that came into effect earlier in the day. Josiah Wood, a retired B.C. Supreme Court judge representing the Federation of Law Societies, and Jack Giles, a respected barrister appearing for the Law Society of B.C., excoriated Bill C-22, saying it will "devastate" their profession.Mr. Wood said the legislation is so Draconian the world hasn't seen anything like it since Adolf Hitler ordered lawyers to secretly inform on their clients. "In the West ... the last incidence when the government sought to turn the legal profession away from its duties ... into agents for the state, was in Nazi Germany," Mr. Wood said. He apologized to the court for using such an odious comparison, but said it is justified because the law attacks one of the key foundations of the legal profession -- lawyer-client confidentiality. The bill, which came into force yesterday out of public view, requires lawyers, bankers, realtors, investors and other financial agents to secretly report to the government when they suspect a client may be involved in money laundering. Officials have 30-days in which to make a report, after their suspicions are raised, and they are forbidden from telling their client. Failure to comply with the law can result in a fine of $2-million and a five-year jail sentence. Mr. Giles said the legislation will destroy the independence of the legal profession and turn lawyers into state agents. "Today, without the intervention of this court, it becomes a crime for every lawyer in this country to fail to act as a secret agent for the government," Mr. Giles said. "The lawyer's obligation to spy for the government becomes effective immediately." Mr. Giles said the mere suspicion of money laundering is enough to trigger the report requirement, and a lawyer's "whole body of knowledge" is called upon -- meaning the regulation applies retroactively to anything a lawyer knows about a client. "If this regulation is not immediately postponed, the impact will not only be irreparable, but devastating," Mr. Giles said. He said the Law Society of B.C. will seek to have lawyers exempted from the bill, so they can continue to have confidential relationships with their clients. "We are seeking to maintain what has been the status quo for over 700 years," he said of the confidential relationship lawyers have with clients. He urged the court to allow a short leave -- that is, to order a trial as soon as a judge and courtroom is available, so the constitutionality of Bill C-22 can be tested in court. Both Mr. Giles and Mr. Wood had hoped a trial could begin today, telling the judge they were ready to start immediately. But Harry Wruck, appearing for the Attorney-General of Canada, said the breadth of the legal attack caught him by surprise. Mr. Wruck told the court he needed several weeks to prepare for the challenge. "We're bending over backwards [to get ready]," he told the court. "It is a very complex issue. It will involve a great many international issues." Mr. Wruck said he's certain Canada is not alone in requiring lawyers to report on their clients. "It was almost amusing when I heard my friend [Mr. Wood] say Canada is becoming a Nazi Germany, because, of course, Britain has similar provisions," he said, without providing details. He said he will be able to show the court examples of what other countries are doing to fight money laundering. "This legislation is not the type of heinous legislation that my friends describe," he said. Mr. Wruck said money laundering has exploded as an international problem, and Canada has to move in concert with other countries to combat it. He urged the court not to grant an injunction against Bill C-22. Justice Marion Allan agreed the matter is an urgent one and said she would hear arguments on Tuesday, but she refused a request for an injunction until then. The money laundering act was passed in June, 2000, amid growing concern that criminal organizations were cleaning their money through ostensibly legitimate businesses in Canada. Federal justice officials have touted it as a weapon against terrorist funding networks, which are known to launder their funds much as other criminal groups and depend on the ability to make undetected cross-border financial transactions. The act's most radical provisions have come under fire from legal groups that see an attack on the time-honoured principle of solicitor-client privilege. The Canadian Bar Association has said the law would "authorize what we see as unreasonable search and seizure." While the exact definition of "suspicious" is not yet clear, government guidelines distributed with the legislation suggest lawyers look upon a client's nervousness, over-friendliness or even reluctance to discuss personal finances as signs of danger. Lawyers can be fined as much as $2-million, or imprisoned as long as five years, for failing to comply with the laws. Other provisions set to go into effect over the next year require lawyers to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more and allow authorities to seize lawyers' mail or enter their firms' premises. Anne McLellan, the federal Minister of Justice, has been unsympathetic. At the bar association's annual meeting last summer, she refused to exempt lawyers because that would leave a "gaping loophole" in the law. � 2001 Watchmanjournal.org - All rights reserved. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/kCpqlB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In August, 2001, the popular Ingram show was cancelled, suddenly and without explanation. It was the only televised challenge to the social-political establishment of BC. Why did this happen? What can be done to remedy this assault against our by-Constitution "democratic society"? Your use of Yahoo! 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