The CBC and others have reported on the continued progress of Bill C-10, the “Safe Streets and Communities Act”, which is now undergoing 11 days of Senate committee hearings (the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee) that will hear from about 100 witnesses.
Conservative Justice and Public Safety Ministers Rob Nicholson and Vic Toews are asking Senators to “expeditiously” approve the Bill.
Bill C-10, which completed second reading in the Senate in December, would, among other things, eliminate conditional sentences of two years or less (i.e., sentences served in the community rather than a correctional facility) from being ordered by courts for violation of two of the core criminal offences under the Competition Act: criminal conspiracy agreements (section 45) and bid-rigging agreements (section 47).
This would be achieved by amending section 742.1 of the Criminal Code to restrict the availability of conditional sentences for all offences for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 14 years or life (and for specified offences, prosecuted by way of indictment, for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 10 years).
Both sections 45 (criminal conspiracy agreements, including price-fixing and market division/allocation agreements between competitors) and 47 (bid-rigging) of the Competition Act are indictable offences, subject to maximum terms of imprisonment of 14 years (increased as a result of recent amendments to the Competition Act in 2009 and 2010).
Given that the Competition Act has been amended to significantly increase the penalties for criminal conspiracy offences (and lower the enforcement bar by removing the former competitive effects test – see: Competition Act amendments), Bill C-10 will, if enacted, further increase the potential risk for individuals violating these key criminal offences under the Act.
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