Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

BC GOVERNMENT SAYS: “Forfeiture to better target drug crime, hidden assets”


VICTORIA:  Cash that is stored with illegal drugs or stolen goods, and assets that criminals try to hide in another person’s name or outside of B.C., will be more susceptible to civil forfeiture as government expands the reach of this tool to combat unlawful activity.

Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public
Safety and Solicitor General
“Police agencies are working tirelessly to take gang members and dealers of deadly fentanyl off B.C.’s streets,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

“Beefing up civil forfeiture to better undermine gang and organized crime is timely and necessary to supplement those frontline, life-saving efforts.”

Changes to the Civil Forfeiture Act, if passed, will:

Shift to the defendant the onus to prove that an asset is not an instrument or proceed of unlawful activity, in cases where the Civil Forfeiture Office (CFO) provides the court with sufficient evidence clearly linking the asset to organized crime, gang activity or drug trafficking. 

For example, if the CFO provides evidence that police seized $100,000 from a safe that also contained a kilogram of fentanyl, the cash will be presumed to be proceeds of crime, with the onus on the defendant to prove the money came from legitimate sources. Similar presumptions will apply in cases involving drug traffickers’ vehicles and property of members of organized crime groups.

Address the impact of instantaneous wealth transfer beyond B.C.’s borders. With modern technology, international organized crime groups and domestic gangs that amass wealth from criminal activities can attempt to liquidate assets or transfer wealth out of reach of provincial authorities. 

The amendments will make it easier for the CFO to identify, trace and obtain forfeiture of these crime proceeds before they disappear – for example, by empowering the office to obtain more, basic information from banks and others about those who may possess proceeds of unlawful activity.

Allow the CFO to apply to the B.C. Supreme Court for limited preservation orders before the office commences formal proceedings. This pre-emptive ability is another new tool that will help to prevent criminals from transferring suspected proceeds of crime out of the CFO’s reach before it files an application in court.

Make the civil forfeiture process more efficient and cost-effective – in turn maximizing the forfeited funds available to invest in community safety programs and initiatives throughout B.C.

“This is the most significant revision of this legislation in the 13-year history of the civil forfeiture program, yet all the changes further its original goal: to undermine the profit motive driving some of the most violent criminal activity in our province,” Farnworth said.

“We believe these changes will reaffirm B.C.’s leadership in Canada in tracing and forfeiting proceeds of crime.”
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budget 2027: After a Decade of Decline, NDP Budget Delivers an Assault on Seniors, Working Families, and Small Businesses

Peter Milobar, BC Conservative Finance Critic, condemned the NDP government’s latest budget as the result of a decade of decline that has left British Columbians broke, unsafe, and paying more for less.   “After ten years of NDP mismanagement, this budget is an assault on seniors, working families, and the small businesses that drive our economy,” said Milobar. “The NDP have turned their back on the people working hardest to make ends meet and the seniors who built this province.” Milobar pointed to a new $1.1 billion annual income tax increase and warned that the government is piling new costs onto households already struggling with affordability.   “This government keeps asking British Columbians for more, while delivering less,” Milobar said. “The question people are asking is simple: Where has all the money gone?” Milobar noted that BC has gone from a surplus in the first year of NDP government to a projected deficit of more than $13 billion this year, while prov...
Post a Comment
Read more

WARD STAMER -- Those are REAL forestry numbers, not just made-up numbers

The following is a condensed version of remarks Kamloops – North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer’s made, regarding Forestry, in the BC Legislature, on Tuesday afternoon (02/24/2026)   Let’s talk a little bit, when we talk about Budget 2026, about the forest industry, which is near and dear to my heart. Forestry remains one of British Columbia’s foundational industries. It’s a pillar that built this province. Entire communities depend upon it. Interior towns, northern communities, Vancouver Island regions, the Kootenays, the Lower Mainland, with manufacturing facilities in Surrey and Maple Ridge, just to name a few — everywhere in BC is touched by forestry. One word that was not mentioned in Budget 2026 was forestry. That’s a shame, an incredible shame. It wasn’t an oversight – it was intentional. This government has driven forestry into the ground .... INTO THE GROUND! We can talk a little bit about some of the initiatives that this government has brought forth, to try to resurrect ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FORSETH -- Before anyone gets excited about one poll showing a candidate with a 25 percent lead, and 44 percent support overall, let’s give it a few more weeks

Is this based in reality -- how accurate are the numbers? In the past couple of weeks a couple of candidates, for the leadership of the BC Conservative Party, have been presenting polling results that they lead the pack – one even going so far as to say they have a lock on 44% of those who will be voting, and a twenty-five percent lead over the individual ranked second. I am going to say that this one, from Kerry-Lynne Findlay, is highly suspect. First of all the company conducting the poll, ERG National Research, is not a Member of Industry Bodies (the Canadian Research Insights Council), meaning they do not adhere to established industry standards for research, such as transparency, privacy, and methodological rigor. AI Overview states that ... based on alerts from the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) and reports, ERG National Research should be treated with extreme caution regarding its reliability, and legitimacy, in conducting political polling. Before I even read this in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more