I guess the new base of two years for very major frauds won't do any harm -- frankly frauds that large don't get two years -- they get much longer -- so the base might have the curious effect of lowering sentences. All that said, because the base set is lower than what judges do anyway I can see the bill as showing community revulsion over the massive frauds recently seen and as such is quite supportable. Setting out express aggravating factors is a helpful step.
That said, the Government isn't doing anything to stop these crimes from happening other than making jail time more lengthy. Longer sentences for crimes will not fully deter white collar criminals but a higher chance of getting caught will. What we need is more focus on stopping the crimes from happening in the first place. There is nothing in this announcement to bulk up prevention.
White-collar criminals face new sentences
Campbell Clark
Ottawa — The Globe and Mail
The federal government will legislate two-year minimum sentences for big-money frauds of more than $1-million, seeking to assuage an outcry over a series of Ponzi schemes and rip-offs that came to light as financial markets tanked.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson couldn't point to any cases where judges gave such serious fraudsters lighter sentences than his proposed minimum. But he insisted the new bill will create a tougher “base” of penalties for white-collar fraud.
The bill will also introduce a series of aggravating factors that judges can use to dish out tougher sentences, up to a maximum of 14 years – such as the psychological and financial devastation of the victim, efforts by the perpetrator to hide their tracks by destroying records, and the amount of planning and complexity of the fraud.
Mr. Nicholson outlined the measures in the latest of a series of press conference he has held before actually tabling the legislation tomorrow.
2 comments:
Let's say someone came up to you and said that if you spent 1 year in jail, you would have $50M after you got out. Would you do it? I suspect there are a huge number of people who would.
That's one motivation behind white collar crime - the payoff to punishment equation falls heavily in favour of the payoff.
A point about minimum sentences not acting as a deterrent: There is a set of criminals that will commit crime no matter what the sentence. Those are precisely the people that need to be kept permanently seperate from society. That's something Canada is woefully incapable of doing. At least a minium sentence keeps those idiots from committing further crimes for a longer period of time.
This bill does nothing to stem the tide of white collar crimes...I do think that the way the government is wasting our tax dollars, they shoud be charged with white collar crimes. Wouldn't that be nice seeing Harper and his merry band of "rob from the poor to give to the rich" accomplices serving time for abusing the trust that Canadians gave them to invest and spend our, the Canadian taxpayer's, money wisely?
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