Money laundering is one of the most complex policy challenges facing the Canadian government and various federal and provincial criminal justice agencies. Since the advent of global financial systems based increasingly on sophisticated technology, money laundering has involved multi-national transactions. In response to this phenomenon, Canada has participated in designing international treaties to better facilitate the investigation and prosecution of money laundering schemes. This thesis explores the mutual legal assistance process and how it works at the level of implementation in a Canadian context.; The primary policy question is: "Does the legislation and regulations Canada and other countries have enacted to investigate and prosecute money laundering offences reflect those countries' actual capacity and will to provide mutual legal assistance to law enforcement officers in foreign jurisdictions?" This thesis suggests that the answer to this question is both yes and no. A case study approach involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Vancouver Commercial Crime and Proceeds of Crime Sections was employed. Both agencies are involved in mutual legal assistance requests from Canada to foreign jurisdictions as well as from foreign jurisdictions to Canada. Police case files were used to describe the degree to which governments commit to the mutual legal assistance process.; Three mechanisms of cooperation were examined: (1) police-to-police requests, (2) letters rogatory, and (3) mutual legal assistance treaty requests. Of the three, the treaty request process is the most effective method for gathering evidence and proceeding to prosecution of a case. However, the investigative and judicial processes cannot operate efficiently unless more resources are committed to money laundering cases both nationally and internationally. The inherent contradiction is that even though nations declare their commitment to responding to money laundering cooperatively, their ability to carry out those commitments is thwarted because of incongruent systems and priorities, both inter- and intra-nationally. In effect, the police often lack the basic investigative resources to unravel the complex financial schemes in a manner that facilitates successful prosecution. Unless Canada and related countries streamline the treaty process and increase resources, anti-money laundering policies will continue to be ineffective.
展开▼
