Plan to ease penalties for corporate crime has drawbacks: internal analysis
OTTAWA — A federal plan to take a bite out of corporate crime by allowing prosecutors to suspend criminal charges against companies has potential downsides, an internal analysis says — including the risk it could fail to discourage misdeeds and erode public confidence in the legal system.
The Trudeau government has quietly tucked a proposal to amend the Criminal Code into its 582-page budget legislation. The measure would allow for the use of a tool sometimes referred to as a “deferred prosecution agreement,” or DPA.
It’s designed to encourage more companies to come forward to disclose corporate crimes and to identify individuals for prosecution. The primary goal of such regimes, which have been introduced in the U.S. and the U.K., is to dig up crimes that might not have otherwise come to light.
By striking one of these agreements with a prosecutor and meeting the terms of the deal, a company could avoid a criminal conviction and the resulting financial hit of being barred from bidding on lucrative public contracts for a period of 10 years.