Doing Business in Canada | 1

OLD CARLETON COUNTY GAOL

Ottawa’s Carleton County Gaol was built in 1862 and served as a prison until 1972. Now a heritage building, the cells have been converted into hostel rooms for young adventurers.

Almost every day, the media reports on another

investigation into corporate fraud, corruption,

bribery or collusion. In Canada and around the

world, regulators and enforcement agencies

are taking a hard stand against improper and

unethical business practices.

To ensure compliance with the complex framework of laws,

regulations and governance requirements, and to detect and

prevent potential violations, businesses should consult a

team of legal professionals with national and international

capabilities and experience.

X:WHITE COLLAR CRIME/CORRUPTION

2 | Doing Business in Canada

1. FOREIGN CORRUPTIONCanada’s answer to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was the enactment of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA) in 1998. Like the FCPA, the CFPOA criminalizes the act of giving a reward, advantage or benefit of any kind to a foreign public official in exchange for an act or an omission to act in connection with the performance of that official’s duties, or to induce the official to use his or her position to influence acts or decisions of the foreign state.

Canada’s jurisdiction over foreign bribery is wide. The CFPOA captures acts committed anywhere by:

• A Canadian citizen

• A permanent resident of Canada

• A corporation, company, firm or partnership that is incorporated, formed or otherwise organized under the laws of Canada or a province

Unlike the FCPA, Canada’s CFPOA is purely a criminal statute — there is no civil component. The potential penalties for corporations include: unlimited fines, corporate probation, debarment from government contracting and forfeiture of criminal proceeds.

For individuals, the potential penalties include: up to 14 years’ imprisonment, unlimited fines, probation and debarment from government contracting.

While Canada was slow to enforce the CFPOA, since 2011 there has been an increase in enforcement. In 2011, Niko Resources Ltd. pleaded guilty under the Act and was sentenced to a $9.5-million fine and three years’ corporate probation. In 2013 Griffiths Energy, a Canadian oil company operating in Chad, Africa, was sentenced to a $10.25-million fine under the Act. Also in 2013, Nazir Karigar was convicted after trial for bribes paid to the Indian minister of civil aviation and employees of Air India to influence the sale of facial recognition software. Karigar was the first individual to be convicted under CFPOA — he was sentenced to three years in jail.

2. ANTITRUST/COMPETITION LAWAntitrust in Canada is governed by the Competition Act, which is a central and established feature of Canadian economic policy. The purpose of the Act is to eliminate activities that reduce competition in the marketplace. As a whole, the Act embodies a complex scheme of economic regulation, and identifies and defines anti-competitive conduct. It provides an extensive range of criminal and administrative redress against companies engaging in behaviour that tends to reduce competition.

The key pillars of the Act’s criminal provisions are sections 45 and 47, which prohibit anti-competitive conduct including price fixing and bid-rigging, respectively. Following amendments to the Act in 2009, penalties for those criminal offences can now be up to 14 years’ imprisonment and/or up to $25 million in fines. Recent case law suggests that courts may use the amendments to harshly penalize certain anti-competitive conduct to demonstrate society’s “abhorrence of the crime.”

3. SECURITIES PROSECUTIONSIn Canada, unlike most other jurisdictions, securities regulation is not done at the federal level but is instead regulated by the provinces. Each of the provincial securities statutes include quasi-criminal provisions, such as prohibitions on insider trading and tipping, in addition to securities and accounting fraud provisions. Penalties for quasi-criminal securities prosecutions include jail sentences and fines. There are also overlapping Criminal Code provisions related to securities offences — such as insider trading — but they are rarely utilized.

4. FRAUDBy virtue of its broad interpretation in case law, criminal fraud is one of the more commonly prosecuted offences in the Canadian corporate context. The offence can be committed by or against a corporation.

Doing Business in Canada | 3

Criminal fraud will arise where, through deceit, falsehood, or other fraudulent means, a person intentionally defrauds the public or another person of any property, money, valuable security or any service. Where the subject-matter of the fraud exceeds $5,000, the offence is punishable by a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment.

5. CORPORATE CRIMINAL LIABILITYCanada’s Supreme Court has long held that the corporate vehicle occupies such a large portion of the industrial, commercial and sociological sectors that amenability to our criminal law is as essential for the corporation as it is for the natural person.

The Criminal Code allows for corporate criminal liability where a senior officer — a representative who plays an important role in the establishment of the organization’s policies, or who is responsible for managing an important aspect of the organization’s activities — is implicated in the crime. To establish criminal liability, the senior officer must have intent, at least in part, to provide some benefit to the organization.

The senior officer can attract corporate criminal liability on the following grounds:

• Acting within the scope of their authority, the senior officer becomes a party to the offence

• Directing others to commit the offence

• Failing to take all reasonable measures to stop a representative of the organization from committing the offence

6. REGULATORY PROSECUTIONSThere are numerous regulatory regimes in Canada that have criminal or quasi-criminal powers. Some of the more commonly used powers include the Occupational Health and Safety Act, various pieces of environmental legislation and a wide variety of economic legislation, and regulatory bodies.

Learn more about Gowling WLG services in this area at gowlingwlg.com/whitecollar-canada