Canada: Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act 2002 results in massive seizures

According to the Ontario Trucking Association there are 130 border crossings and, they say "The Windsor-Detroit gateway, made up of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, is the single highest volume corridor of international trade in the entire world with Detroit-Windsor Tunnel carrying 4.2 million cars and 0.1 million commercial vehicles and Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor carrying 3.6 million cars and 1.1 million southbound. It's a fair bet that these either returned or were returning to Canada so the total traffic movements at that one crossing alone will be nearly double the above figures - that is around 18 million vehicles. That was in 1995.

In the past eighteen months, the Detroit-Windsor crossing has become a major bottleneck as traffic is slowed and inspected. Yesterday, David H. Bradley, President, Ontario Trucking Association wrote to Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada and Ernie Eves, Premier of Ontario asking why the promised improvements to the crossing to ease congestion have not begun.

He said "the Windsor-Detroit border is by far the busiest trade link in the world. It accounts for 25% of the total truck volume between Canada and the United States, nearly 30% of Canada"s CDN 182 milliardexports by road and over 32% of Canada"s CDN 211 milliard imports by road."

According to the British Columbia Trucking Association 50% of U.S.- B.C. trade is shipped by truck, Surrey's Pacific Highway crossing handles 4,000 trucks per day and 1.3 million lorries crossed the U.S.-B.C. borders in 1998.

On 6th January 2003, US Customs gained the power to intercept undeclared cash movements, a move that was highly publicised at the time: "Organized crime, money laundering and the threat of terrorism are serious international problems and the Government of Canada has introduced legislation to help detect and deter money laundering and terrorist financing activities," said Minister of National RevenueElinor Caplan, going on "effective, January 6, 2003, all persons and entities will be required to report the importing and exporting of currency and monetary instruments of CAD10,000 or more to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). However, there are no restrictions on the amount of currency or monetary instruments that may be imported into or exported from Canada, nor is it illegal to do so." Under the Regulations, written currency reports must be signed and given to a customs officer. Failure to report currency and monetary instruments may result in seizure or the assessment of a penalty ranging from CAD250 to CAD5000. USA law also require the reporting of currency exports exceeding USD10,000.

It is against this background that Canada Customs has announced cash seizures in the first five weeks of operation of the new regulations: at first, it looks like a lot but compared to the amount of traffic and the number of people moving, it is not: cash seized amounts to CAD2.75 million of which just over CAD1 million was found in vehicles passing from BC to the USA.

Having said that, some of the examples are a little more startling. Just under CAD800,000 was found hidden in the side panels of one van crossing out of BC, according to Customs spokesman Paul Shore. The vehicle has also been confiscated as tools connected with the offence.