James Bezan, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman
“I want the House to pass my bill. It strengthens our sanctions laws to punish corrupt foreign officials who abuse human rights or harass people living in Canada. It also lets us take frozen foreign assets and give the money to victims.”
“moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. He said: Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise for my private member’s bill, Bill C-219, the international anti-corruption and human rights act, or Sergei Magnitsky law no. 3, which we decided on at committee. I think it is important, every time we start these debates, especially for those who might be watching for the very first time, to ask, why Magnitsky? Who is he? Who is Sergei Magnitsky? We have to remember that Sergei was a Russian lawyer. He was an auditor, a husband and a father of two. He was a guy who believed in fairness. He believed in the rule of law. He believed in standing up for a new Russia. Sadly, because he was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in, was not afraid to stand up for what matters and was not afraid to stand up against oligarchs and corrupt officials in the Kremlin and across Russia, he was murdered. Sergei uncovered the largest tax fraud in Russian history. The proper course of action was obvious to him. He took it to court and exposed the corruption. In doing so, he was the one who was arrested. He was the one who was detained. They tortured him in prison. They denied him medical attention, and eventually he was murdered in a Russian prison by the very officials who had taken this fraud through the Russian government, to the tune of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. The Russian government allowed him to be killed and has been trying to cover it up for the past 17 years. Using Sergei Magnitsky’s name, which we have been doing since 2017, is important, in that it delivers a strong political message to Vladimir Putin, to his corrupt oligarchs in the Kremlin and in industry, and of course to the corrupt allies he has around the world, who are not afraid to use corruption to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be representing and protecting or who are not afraid to commit gross human rights violations. Originally, we were going to call the bill the Sergei Magnitsky international anti-corruption and human rights act. It now has the new name. The bill would change the name of the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, which we passed back in 2017 and was done by Senator Raynell Andreychuk and me. It would now be called the Sergei Magnitsky law. We would also change the name of the Special Economic Measures Act to the global sanctions and special economic measures act. It would be called the Sergei Magnitsky law no. 2, to keep it all straight and even. It is important to recognize that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the government agreed that we needed to use Sergei Magnitsky’s name every time we lay out a sanction against those who are committing these abuses and committing aggression against their neighbours, as Putin is committing in Ukraine today with the Russian war machine that Putin has, as well as against others around the world who are committing gross human rights violations. Unfortunately, a number of amendments were made to the original version we tabled here. I will just say, for those who have been following this, that the one thing the bill would not do anymore is it would not immediately sanction family members of sanctioned individuals whom Canada has recognized and put on our global sanctions list. It would just be those individuals and not their spouses, children, girlfriends or boyfriends. We know that Russian oligarchs have done an amazing job of taking their wealth out of their country. Even though they might be sanctioned and cannot move their wealth or travel to Canada or other places, they have been sending their children to university here with millions of dollars. They have been sending their wives and spouses over to Canada, putting up bank accounts and getting around the rules we have. Of course, they are using Canada as a safe haven. The other ones who are really good at this is those in the IRGC, with the regime in Tehran. It is the same thing. They are moving here with their families and spouses, hiding assets and buying amazing properties. It would be nice if we could sanction their children, spouses and other family members on the immediate family level so that this does not happen. The bill would no longer require the RCMP and FINTRAC to report to the minister on what is happening and whether there should be sanctions coming forward. It would no longer require the minister to report names and the status of prisoners of conscience in an annual report on human rights. It would also not amend the Broadcasting Act to make sure that state broadcasters from countries that are committing a genocide recognized in the House or in the Senate would not be allowed to broadcast on our airwaves. We are still happy with the bill in this form. I may have been fairly ambitious in bringing it forward the first time. When we were still in a minority government situation, it looked like it was going to go through, maybe without any amendments, but that changed, unfortunately. We have to accept that and roll with the punches, as one might say. I want to again mention former Senator Raynell Andreychuk. She and I worked very hard together back in 2017 to bring the original Sergei Magnitsky Law to Parliament. I did it in the House, and she brought it forward and passed it through the Senate, and it became law. Even at that time, back in 2017, there was collaboration among all parties to make sure that it was passed and that we were finally targeting the corrupt foreign officials who were committing gross human rights violations. It is important to note that the reason we have to come back to this is that there were some loopholes, and I have already pointed out some of them. In this version of Bill C-219, we would close those loopholes and address some of the shortcomings. This means that we would be better aligned with our allies and how they sanction, whether it is the United States, the European Union, Australia or others. It would also provide better coordination among the legislation and regulations we have right here in Canada. Having the three bills come together under this umbrella private member’s bill, which is uncommon in this House, and coordinating three pieces of legislation into one would be a positive move. It would make it a lot easier, in the administration of justice, to address things like human rights, state aggression and gross human rights violations. I want to point out what this bill would do, and I think it is important that we celebrate it. This is the first time in Canadian law that we would define prisoners of conscience and require the Minister of Foreign Affairs to publish an annual report. That annual report would be tabled here in the House and would require the minister to talk about how the Government of Canada is advancing human rights around the world and how it is supporting prisoners of conscience and other human rights defenders. A lot of people may be asking what a prisoner of conscience is, so I will read it into the record: prisoner of conscience means an individual who, in contravention of international human rights standards, has been detained or otherwise physically restricted solely because of their identity or their conscientiously held beliefs, including religious or political beliefs. We would also define for the very first time what transnational repression is and would sanction the foreign nationals who commit transnational repression right here in Canada and elsewhere around the world: transnational repression means tactics used by a foreign state to intimidate, harass, surveil or threaten individuals or groups located outside the state borders or physically harm such individuals or members of such groups, including elected officials, political dissidents, human rights defenders, exiled journalists, diaspora communities, civil society activists and refugees, for the purpose of silencing dissent and stifling activism. Just so people understand how this would apply here in Canada, I will note that a prisoner of conscience is what we are witnessing right now in Hong Kong with Jimmy Lai, who stood up for the freedom of speech and for democracy in Hong Kong. He is in his late seventies now. He is diabetic. He has been held in detention, in solitary confinement, for the last several years because of his belief in the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, because he owned a paper. He has connections to Canada. His sister, nephews and nieces live here, and he has properties here in Canada. The Chinese regime, the Communist regime that is overseeing the administration in Hong Kong, jailed him on trumped-up charges and finally dragged him in front of a kangaroo court after delaying and staying proceedings for years. Jimmy Lai is languishing in prison. He has been sentenced to life, and he will not last long, sadly enough. He is a prisoner of conscience, and we need to rescue him. The Government of Canada needs to stand up on the right side of this, from the standpoint of human rights. Transnational repression is the flip side of that. As we all know, the Communist regime in Beijing has police stations here in Canada. It has interfered in at least two elections. We had a big judicial inquiry on the foreign interference in our electoral process here. We need to make sure that the individuals who are acting on behalf of the state in Canada to repress our elections, or repress nationals from that country who now call Canada home, are not getting away with it. I received a letter just last week from a Falun Gong practitioner who had been peacefully protesting in Toronto in front of the Chinese consulate and was assaulted by an employee from the consulate. The employee beat this lady and made death threats to her. Not only would we call this a criminal act here in Canada, but because they can hide behind their diplomatic immunity, such individuals would be considered under transnational repression and would have to stand trial for that. Under Bill C-219, we would require that Parliament put out a list of the foreign national entities that are going to be added to our sanctions list. We want to increase the penalties on this and find the people who are committing prisoner-of-conscience abuse and transnational repression. The penalties could be increased up to $100,000 under this piece of legislation, which I think would be a huge move to actually help police all the abuse we are witnessing. One of the great things in the bill is that it would also provide a timeline to the Government of Canada for forfeiting of frozen assets. I always like to use as an example the fact that everybody who goes through Toronto Pearson airport sees the great big Russian Antonov aircraft that is sitting there because it is a frozen asset. The oligarchs who own the company have definitely been sanctioned by Canada. Instead of sitting there, as the aircraft has been for four years, within 24 months, assets should be forfeited and liquidated so the government can then distribute those assets to the victims or to the government. In this case, it would be given to the Ukraine to help them deal with the cost of the war such as the cost of the damage to Ukrainian homes and infrastructure and the loss of life because of the barbaric actions of the Russian military. This is also true with other holdings, but the focus is on those owned by private individuals or private entities, not government entities. If they have been sanctioned, any of their assets here in Canada should, after 24 months, be turned over by the state, Canada, to the victims. Finally, the preamble of the bill calls for the government to continue the good work they are doing in trying to establish the international anti-corruption court in The Hague. With respect to all the people out there who are committing genocides, trampling on human rights and abusing their own citizens or neighbours, those oligarchs, such as Putin in particular but also, historically, people such as the Mussolinis and the Hitlers of the world who committed mass genocides, how did they all start? Putin first started as a corrupt official. By having the international criminal court, we could actually change the behaviour of psychopaths who are in places of power, and have them back off from what they are doing to their own citizenry. In conclusion, I believe, although the original version of Bill C-219 provided more in sanctioning, enforcement and oversight across Canada’s sanctioning regime, that the amended version we have before the House today remains critical for modernizing the sanctions mechanisms for the future.”
moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. He said: Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise for my private member’s bill, Bill C-219, the international anti-corruption and human rights act, or Sergei Magnitsky law no. 3, which we decided on at committee. I think it is important, every time we start these debates, especially for those who might be watching for the very first time, to ask, why Magnitsky? Who is he? Who is Sergei Magnitsky? We have to remember that Sergei was a Russian lawyer. He was an auditor, a husband and a father of two. He was a guy who believed in fairness. He believed in the rule of law. He believed in standing up for a new Russia. Sadly, because he was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in, was not afraid to stand up for what matters and was not afraid to stand up against oligarchs and corrupt officials in the Kremlin and across Russia, he was murdered. Sergei uncovered the largest tax fraud in Russian history. The proper course of action was obvious to him. He took it to court and exposed the corruption. In doing so, he was the one who was arrested. He was the one who was detained. They tortured him in prison. They denied him medical attention, and eventually he was murdered in a Russian prison by the very officials who had taken this fraud through the Russian government, to the tune of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars. The Russian government allowed him to be killed and has been trying to cover it up for the past 17 years. Using Sergei Magnitsky’s name, which we have been doing since 2017, is important, in that it delivers a strong political message to Vladimir Putin, to his corrupt oligarchs in the Kremlin and in industry, and of course to the corrupt allies he has around the world, who are not afraid to use corruption to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they are supposed to be representing and protecting or who are not afraid to commit gross human rights violations. Originally, we were going to call the bill the Sergei Magnitsky international anti-corruption and human rights act. It now has the new name. The bill would change the name of the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, which we passed back in 2017 and was done by Senator Raynell Andreychuk and me. It would now be called the Sergei Magnitsky law. We would also change the name of the Special Economic Measures Act to the global sanctions and special economic measures act. It would be called the Sergei Magnitsky law no. 2, to keep it all straight and even. It is important to recognize that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the government agreed that we needed to use Sergei Magnitsky’s name every time we lay out a sanction against those who are committing these abuses and committing aggression against their neighbours, as Putin is committing in Ukraine today with the Russian war machine that Putin has, as well as against others around the world who are committing gross human rights violations. Unfortunately, a number of amendments were made to the original version we tabled here. I will just say, for those who have been following this, that the one thing the bill would not do anymore is it would not immediately sanction family members of sanctioned individuals whom Canada has recognized and put on our global sanctions list. It would just be those individuals and not their spouses, children, girlfriends or boyfriends. We know that Russian oligarchs have done an amazing job of taking their wealth out of their country. Even though they might be sanctioned and cannot move their wealth or travel to Canada or other places, they have been sending their children to university here with millions of dollars. They have been sending their wives and spouses over to Canada, putting up bank accounts and getting around the rules we have. Of course, they are using Canada as a safe haven. The other ones who are really good at this is those in the IRGC, with the regime in Tehran. It is the same thing. They are moving here with their families and spouses, hiding assets and buying amazing properties. It would be nice if we could sanction their children, spouses and other family members on the immediate family level so that this does not happen. The bill would no longer require the RCMP and FINTRAC to report to the minister on what is happening and whether there should be sanctions coming forward. It would no longer require the minister to report names and the status of prisoners of conscience in an annual report on human rights. It would also not amend the Broadcasting Act to make sure that state broadcasters from countries that are committing a genocide recognized in the House or in the Senate would not be allowed to broadcast on our airwaves. We are still happy with the bill in this form. I may have been fairly ambitious in bringing it forward the first time. When we were still in a minority government situation, it looked like it was going to go through, maybe without any amendments, but that changed, unfortunately. We have to accept that and roll with the punches, as one might say. I want to again mention former Senator Raynell Andreychuk. She and I worked very hard together back in 2017 to bring the original Sergei Magnitsky Law to Parliament. I did it in the House, and she brought it forward and passed it through the Senate, and it became law. Even at that time, back in 2017, there was collaboration among all parties to make sure that it was passed and that we were finally targeting the corrupt foreign officials who were committing gross human rights violations. It is important to note that the reason we have to come back to this is that there were some loopholes, and I have already pointed out some of them. In this version of Bill C-219, we would close those loopholes and address some of the shortcomings. This means that we would be better aligned with our allies and how they sanction, whether it is the United States, the European Union, Australia or others. It would also provide better coordination among the legislation and regulations we have right here in Canada. Having the three bills come together under this umbrella private member’s bill, which is uncommon in this House, and coordinating three pieces of legislation into one would be a positive move. It would make it a lot easier, in the administration of justice, to address things like human rights, state aggression and gross human rights violations. I want to point out what this bill would do, and I think it is important that we celebrate it. This is the first time in Canadian law that we would define prisoners of conscience and require the Minister of Foreign Affairs to publish an annual report. That annual report would be tabled here in the House and would require the minister to talk about how the Government of Canada is advancing human rights around the world and how it is supporting prisoners of conscience and other human rights defenders. A lot of people may be asking what a prisoner of conscience is, so I will read it into the record: prisoner of conscience means an individual who, in contravention of international human rights standards, has been detained or otherwise physically restricted solely because of their identity or their conscientiously held beliefs, including religious or political beliefs. We would also define for the very first time what transnational repression is and would sanction the foreign nationals who commit transnational repression right here in Canada and elsewhere around the world: transnational repression means tactics used by a foreign state to intimidate, harass, surveil or threaten individuals or groups located outside the state borders or physically harm such individuals or members of such groups, including elected officials, political dissidents, human rights defenders, exiled journalists, diaspora communities, civil society activists and refugees, for the purpose of silencing dissent and stifling activism. Just so people understand how this would apply here in Canada, I will note that a prisoner of conscience is what we are witnessing right now in Hong Kong with Jimmy Lai, who stood up for the freedom of speech and for democracy in Hong Kong. He is in his late seventies now. He is diabetic. He has been held in detention, in solitary confinement, for the last several years because of his belief in the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, because he owned a paper. He has connections to Canada. His sister, nephews and nieces live here, and he has properties here in Canada. The Chinese regime, the Communist regime that is overseeing the administration in Hong Kong, jailed him on trumped-up charges and finally dragged him in front of a kangaroo court after delaying and staying proceedings for years. Jimmy Lai is languishing in prison. He has been sentenced to life, and he will not last long, sadly enough. He is a prisoner of conscience, and we need to rescue him. The Government of Canada needs to stand up on the right side of this, from the standpoint of human rights. Transnational repression is the flip side of that. As we all know, the Communist regime in Beijing has police stations here in Canada. It has interfered in at least two elections. We had a big judicial inquiry on the foreign interference in our electoral process here. We need to make sure that the individuals who are acting on behalf of the state in Canada to repress our elections, or repress nationals from that country who now call Canada home, are not getting away with it. I received a letter just last week from a Falun Gong practitioner who had been peacefully protesting in Toronto in front of the Chinese consulate and was assaulted by an employee from the consulate. The employee beat this lady and made death threats to her. Not only would we call this a criminal act here in Canada, but because they can hide behind their diplomatic immunity, such individuals would be considered under transnational repression and would have to stand trial for that. Under Bill C-219, we would require that Parliament put out a list of the foreign national entities that are going to be added to our sanctions list. We want to increase the penalties on this and find the people who are committing prisoner-of-conscience abuse and transnational repression. The penalties could be increased up to $100,000 under this piece of legislation, which I think would be a huge move to actually help police all the abuse we are witnessing. One of the great things in the bill is that it would also provide a timeline to the Government of Canada for forfeiting of frozen assets. I always like to use as an example the fact that everybody who goes through Toronto Pearson airport sees the great big Russian Antonov aircraft that is sitting there because it is a frozen asset. The oligarchs who own the company have definitely been sanctioned by Canada. Instead of sitting there, as the aircraft has been for four years, within 24 months, assets should be forfeited and liquidated so the government can then distribute those assets to the victims or to the government. In this case, it would be given to the Ukraine to help them deal with the cost of the war such as the cost of the damage to Ukrainian homes and infrastructure and the loss of life because of the barbaric actions of the Russian military. This is also true with other holdings, but the focus is on those owned by private individuals or private entities, not government entities. If they have been sanctioned, any of their assets here in Canada should, after 24 months, be turned over by the state, Canada, to the victims. Finally, the preamble of the bill calls for the government to continue the good work they are doing in trying to establish the international anti-corruption court in The Hague. With respect to all the people out there who are committing genocides, trampling on human rights and abusing their own citizens or neighbours, those oligarchs, such as Putin in particular but also, historically, people such as the Mussolinis and the Hitlers of the world who committed mass genocides, how did they all start? Putin first started as a corrupt official. By having the international criminal court, we could actually change the behaviour of psychopaths who are in places of power, and have them back off from what they are doing to their own citizenry. In conclusion, I believe, although the original version of Bill C-219 provided more in sanctioning, enforcement and oversight across Canada’s sanctioning regime, that the amended version we have before the House today remains critical for modernizing the sanctions mechanisms for the future.
