Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-259, an act respecting the repurposing of certain seized, frozen or sequestrated assets.

I want to offer my support for this legislation and I commend Senator Omidvar for her work in bringing it to the floor. This bill comes at a critical point in world history. I will not go into great detail on the reasons for this as Senator Omidvar and Senator Pate have already done so quite eloquently, but I wish to underscore the crisis which makes this bill an unfortunate reality.

As the preamble to Bill S-259 states:

. . . there is a greater number of forcibly displaced persons than ever before in the world today . . .

Armed conflict and persecution, often the result of or inflamed by bad governance, has led to roughly 70 million people around the world being forced to flee their homes. That is a staggering number — two displaced persons for every Canadian citizen.

We must also remember that, even though there have never been more refugees and displaced people in the world than there are now, this is not a new problem. Neither are war, violence, and persecution. For thousands of years, these scourges have forced innocent people the world over to seek refuge in countries far from home.

Events of just the second half of the 20th century alone, from World War II and conflicts that flowed from it to the battles of independence that marked the end of the colonial era and proxy wars post-Cold War left at least 210 million people displaced. To reiterate, that is just the period from 1940 to 2000.

As I have said before in this chamber, my own parents count themselves in that number, having come to Canada as refugees of the second “war to end all wars” from what is now Romania. I thank Senator Omidvar for sharing her own story with us.

What has not changed over thousands of years and what will not change regardless of where in the world vulnerable people are forced to flee from is the fact that none of them want or wanted to. Nobody who fled Europe because of the Nazis and later Stalin and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, or Vietnam because of the Vietnam War, or Cambodia because of the Khmer Rouge, or Uganda because of Idi Amin, or Afghanistan because of the Taliban, or Syria because of ISIS and Bashar al-Assad, or Yemen because of the war and dire humanitarian crisis there, or the Rohingya people because of the genocide perpetrated against them by Myanmar or Venezuela because of Nicolás Maduro, none of them wanted to leave their homes. They were all forced to do so.

My parents did not want to leave their ancestral home of 800 years. Senator Omidvar did not want to leave her home in Iran. Senator Ngo did not want to leave his home in Vietnam. Senator Jaffer did not want to leave her home in Uganda.

I make this point, colleagues, to challenge the all too common, and increasing, belief that asylum seekers want to leave their homelands, often for better or just different economic opportunities elsewhere.

There are people who leave their homes for this reason, a valid one, but that is a separate group — and not the one this legislation seeks to help.

Colleagues, this bill seeks to provide another tool through which perpetrators of the conditions that lead to mass displacement may be held to account. As Senator Omidvar said in her second reading speech on April 9, Bill S-259 “. . . stands on the shoulders of the Magnitsky Act.” Of course, it was another of our exceptional colleagues, Senator Andreychuk, who led the way on that legislation.

Inspired by the World Refugee Council of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, this bill would, in essence, make the bad guys pay.

As was pointed out at a recent briefing session, there is a tragic symmetry to the underlying problem that gave rise to this legislation. The foreign entities whose assets would be frozen by Canada are frequently the same entities whose actions or even inaction caused the circumstances that would lead to their assets being frozen in the first place. It is a vicious cycle of greed, theft, corruption, violence, persecution, human flight and displacement. Bill S-259 seeks to break that cycle by freezing and then repurposing the ill-gotten gains of dictators and other bad actors who are at the root of the global displacement crisis and use these various reclaimed assets to help people forced from their homes as well as their hosts in new countries.

Based on the principles of accountability, justice, due process, openness, compassion and good governance, this bill would bring an end to the impunity corrupt foreign actors have enjoyed for far too long and will bring relief to those these officials have so grievously harmed.

The best example, in that it has captured so much attention recently, is Venezuela.

As Senator Omidvar outlined in her speech, the regime of President Maduro has forced well over 3 million people to flee their homes since 2014 when the economic crisis began.

This mass migration has hugely impacted several of Venezuela’s neighbours in South America.

Colombia alone has received 1 million migrants while Peru is hosting 500,000. While Venezuelans have largely been welcomed by these countries, their hosts still face significant challenges.

It is not just migrants and displaced peoples themselves who would be helped by repurposed assets. The money could also be given to the government of the host country to help it handle the influx of people or even to NGOs in the impacted region. How assets would be distributed would be outlined in the ruling of the provincial Superior Court in Canada to which the Attorney General applied for an order to confiscate the assets in Canada of a foreign official. The use and ultimate decision-making authority of the judicial system is critical to the effectiveness of the legislation as it ensures politics are not at play.

Also of note is the well-considered stipulation that any proceeds stemming from the order be paid to the court rather than the government. This not only keeps politics from the equation but also ensures there could be no allegation that the Senate initiated a money bill.

In the case of Venezuela, Canada has already taken the step of freezing assets held here by President Maduro. This bill would allow the courts, if it is deemed appropriate based on due process and reasonable evidence, to seize these assets and then distribute the funds to Venezuelans displaced by the regime, to host countries and/or to NGOs working to help.

One of the biggest benefits of this bill is the creation of a public registry.

Provided for in clause four, the Minister of Foreign Affairs would be required to make publicly available the name of the person or entity whose assets had been frozen and the value of those assets.

Knowing not just who but also what and how is a crucial element of this legislation and speaks to its principle of openness and transparency. It also leads to the next point I wish to highlight, that of good governance.

This principle applies not just to the foreign official or entity but also to Canada. Our own country, and many others around the world, harbours in various forms the wealth stolen from institutions by dictators and other corrupt officials. Bill S-259 would be but one tool at our disposal to prevent and punish the damaging practice of base erosion and profit shifting  — a.k.a. BEPS. We heard about that earlier today.

There is also the issue of beneficial ownership, which the Panama Papers brought to the world’s attention in 2016. While not illegal in and of itself, beneficial ownership has been used to hide illegal activity. The Panama Papers brought into stark focus the prevalence of its use for nefarious purposes.

Canada has become a tax haven largely because of the positive reputation of our governmental and financial institutions and our generally strong economy. Corrupt foreign officials steal and embezzle from institutions in their own countries and thus take from their fellow citizens. They then negatively use beneficial ownership to create shell companies in Canada to pay less tax on their assets and/or to hide their ill-gotten gains.

By shifting profits, legitimate or otherwise, from higher-tax jurisdictions to ones with lower taxes like Canada, the tax base in the originating country is eroded. This further hurts populations suffering at the hands of corrupt leaders. It also means that the lower-tax country benefits from the theft of the first nation’s wealth and resources.

Those rules need to be strengthened, but until they are, the fact remains that plundered assets, in various forms, are being housed and enriched in our country. This legislation will go a long way toward reversing the trend and doing some good in the world by helping to alleviate the suffering of far too many people.

In closing, I wish to reiterate another important point raised by Senator Omidvar, which is that this legislation is certainly rare but not unheard of.

Switzerland enacted a similar law in 2015 and France and the United Kingdom, two of our closest allies, are considering it as well.

If Canada makes this bill a law, other countries around the world will surely take notice and action in their own jurisdictions.

We have a chance, colleagues, to be leaders on a vitally important issue that could have a hugely positive impact on some of the world’s most vulnerable people. I applaud Senator Omidvar for taking the first step and encourage all my fellow senators to support this bill. Thank you.