Improving Canada's Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime C ANADIAN

What is the legal profession’s role regarding AML/ATF? The consultation paper recognizes the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2015 decision stating that the requirements of the AML/ATF framework, as applied to the legal profession, violated the Charter.1 It adds that the exclusion of the legal profession in Canada’s AML/ATF framework was considered a major deficiency in the Financial Action Task Force’s. [...] Federation of Law Societies of Canada.2 In that case, the Court held that the parts of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) obliging legal counsel to collect information not required for client representation and granting expansive powers to search law offices violated the Charter and undermined the ability of legal professionals to comply with their duty. [...] Justice Cromwell stated: [83] […] A client must be able to place ‘unrestricted and unbounded confidence’ in his or her lawyer; that confidence which is at the core of the solicitor-client relationship is a part of the legal system itself, not merely ancillary to it: […] The lawyer’s duty of commitment to the client’s cause, along with the protection of the client’s confidences, is central to the l. [...] Enhancing Effectiveness The consultation paper explores ways to enhance the effectiveness of the AML/ATF regime to investigate and prosecute money laundering and terrorist financing and deprive criminals of the proceeds of crime. [...] The Court held that where the interest at stake is solicitor-client privilege, the usual exercise of balancing privacy interests and the exigencies of law enforcement is not particularly helpful because the privilege favours not only the privacy interests of a potential accused, but also the interests of a fair, just and efficient law enforcement process.