(Ottawa) The New Democratic Party (NDP) argues that the sanctions imposed by the Liberal government are in fact “political theatre”, while new data reveals that few funds have been frozen and that none have been seized.
“This government always congratulates itself for adding names to the list of people sanctioned,” NDP MP Heather McPherson noted Tuesday in the House of Commons.
“Liberals say sanctions are an important part of our foreign policy, but there is no enforcement, no investigation and almost nothing that is seized,” she said.
The federal government announces almost weekly new sanctions prohibiting people associated with authoritarian regimes from carrying out financial transactions in Canada and from entering the country.
However, data released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) shows virtually no change in the amount of money frozen in Canadian bank accounts between June and December last year.
As of June 7, Canada had frozen $123 million in domestic assets and blocked transactions worth $289 million in connection with sanctions imposed on Russia.
At the end of December, the RCMP said that 122 million in assets had been seized and 292 million in transactions had been blocked, despite the fact that hundreds more people associated with Russia had been placed on the sanctions list. .
The police force was unable to explain why the amounts declared by financial institutions had hardly changed during this period. In December, the RCMP also noted that no bank had informed them of the existence of sanctioned Haitians or Iranians holding assets in Canada.
Moreover, the parliamentary disclosures requested by Ms.me McPherson show that Ottawa has yet to make use of a law passed last June that allows the government to seize funds from those sanctioned and divert them to victims of wrongdoing.
For example, the government issued a property seizure order in December to begin the process of confiscating US$26 million held by a company owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, but it has yet to file a court petition. .
Mme McPherson argues that Canada is using sanctions as a symbolic tool, without taking the necessary steps to actually discourage support for autocracies.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly responded to the NDP MP’s criticism by offering to work with the NDP on the application of sanctions to confiscate the assets of those targeted.
“We are the first country in the world to do so and we will lead the way,” she said during question period.
Sanctions experts have long argued that Canada lacks the means to properly monitor its sanctions regime, such as tracking financial transactions and tracking how assets are traded.