Bill Browder, co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, says he intends to meet with members of all political parties about toughening Canadian sanctions law, because 'This is one of those things which is not political.'Luke MacGregor
Bill Browder, the U.S.-born financier who successfully campaigned for Western countries to adopt a law to target human-rights abusers, is visiting Ottawa Tuesday to champion legislation aimed at further toughening sanctions law.
Conservative MP James Bezan plans to introduce a private member’s bill, as early as Tuesday, that would expand sanctions law to target foreign individuals who aim to silence dissent or stifle activism by carrying out transnational repression against elected officials, political dissidents, human-rights defenders, journalists and others.
The legislation would also impose sanctions on foreign individuals, entities or institutions that provide material support to those already targeted by sanctions, and who facilitate transactions and help targets evade measures.
It would include the imposition of statutory duties on organizations such as the RCMP and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, which combats money laundering and terrorist financing, to investigate “credible evidence” of sanctions violations. And the legislation would require the Department of Global Affairs to report annually on its sanction efforts.
The legislation would also include immediate family members of individuals targeted by sanctions in visa bans that prevent travel to Canada. These family members could apply for an exemption if they receive no benefit from the target individual.
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The bill would rename Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act, or SEMA, a principal tool for imposing sanctions, after Sergei Magnitsky, a whistle-blower who died in a Moscow prison.
Canada already has a law that names Mr. Magnitsky: Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, or JVCFOA. It’s also called the Sergei Magnitsky Law and received royal assent in Canada in late 2017.
Ottawa has made relatively little use of this second piece − the JVCFOA legislation – preferring to implement sanctions through SEMA. Sanctions experts said SEMA appears to be a more versatile option for Ottawa.
Mr. Browder said he intends to meet with representatives of all political parties in the House of Commons next week to obtain support for Mr. Bezan’s bill. “This is one of those things which is not political,” he said about toughening sanctions rules.
He said he doesn’t plan to meet with the federal government because in his opinion “the government usually tries not to do anything, tries not to improve anything.” Says Mr. Browder: “It’s usually outsiders, you know, parliamentarians, who are the ones to create change.”
John Boscariol, head of McCarthy Tétrault’s international trade and investment law group, said this bill would place more work on the shoulders of the government to administer and police sanctions at a time when it is already strained.
“These are new and novel grounds for imposing sanctions, and it would seem to lead to an expansion of the ability of the Canadian government to impose sanctions on individuals and states that are engaged in this activity,” he said, “but I’m not sure that means we’re going to see more enforcement or improvements in administration.”
Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, said the RCMP already has a heavy workload.
“We cannot enforce what we have as it is,” she said, noting that the RCMP “has a long list of things they’re responsible for.”
Mr. Browder established Hermitage Capital, which rose to become the largest foreign investment fund operating in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Early on, he capitalized on the privatization process, profiting significantly from undervalued Russian companies.
However, as he began exposing corruption involving Russian oligarchs and government officials, he quickly drew the attention and hostility of President Vladimir Putin.
When Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Mr. Magnitsky, discovered a US$230-million tax-fraud scheme executed by Russian officials, Mr. Magnitsky was arrested, subjected to severe torture and ultimately died while imprisoned.
After Mr. Browder himself was expelled from Russia, he devoted his efforts to seeking justice for Mr. Magnitsky.