Victims of white-collar crime are breaking the silence over what they call the “financial rape” of average citizens by fraudulent investors, launching a Canada-wide coalition that received the backing yesterday of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Mr. Harper jumped at the occasion to support what will be called the National Coalition against White-Collar Crime in its quest for stiffer sentences against those found guilty of swindling investors. The group was told by the Prime Minister during a closed-door meeting yesterday that he would facilitate close co-operation with the federal Justice Department in pushing for changes to the Criminal Code.
“[Mr. Harper] wants us to work very closely together, us as a committee and organizing group working with the Justice Minister and his department. We want to see tougher laws brought in Canada,” said Joey Davis, spokesperson for the coalition.
Mr. Davis was representing the more than 200 victims, including his mother, who with many other investors lost their life savings in an investment scam allegedly set up by Montreal investor Earl Jones.
The Prime Minister was unavailable for comment after the meeting. The group represented the type of grassroots movement Mr. Harper needs in pressing opposition parties to support his call for harsher sentences after they denied passage of the government's crime bills. “The opposition – both in the House of Commons and in the Senate – has too often used obstructionist tactics to prevent their passage,” the Prime Minister said in a press release yesterday.
The group could also become an important ally in Mr. Harper's quest for a national securities commission. The coalition is calling for a national regulatory body that would oversee the enforcement of tougher laws to regulate investment activities. However, the Quebec government has threatened to challenge Ottawa's bid for a national regulator before the Supreme Court of Canada, saying it would violate the provinces' constitutional authority over market activities.
According to Janet Watson, who represents 1,600 victims who lost a total of $130-million in an alleged Ponzi scheme by a Montreal investment company called Mount Real, both levels of government need to understand that this was not a political issue but “a people issue.” Ms. Watson, who lost $70,000 in retirement savings invested with Mount Real, said average citizens working all their lives are being fleeced by unscrupulous tactics used by poorly regulated investment managers.
“We equate it to being financially raped,” Ms. Watson said after meeting the Prime Minister. “It's the same stigma. People don't want to talk about it. They feel somehow that they were responsible and that they should have known better. This just isn't so.”
The coalition has launched a national registry and has set up a foundation to offer counselling and other services to the victims. They plan to mobilize grassroots public support for their cause.
The group plans to hold a demonstration on Parliament Hill on Sept. 26 to officially launch the coalition. With each passing day, coalition organizers said support is growing and that in due time it will soon become a force to be reckoned with by all political parties.
“We've awoken a sleeping giant in Canada and those voices need to be heard,” Mr. Davis said.
