Export Development Canada responds to Probe International’s inquiry regarding allegations of bribery related to its support of SNC-Lavalin’s Matala Dam project in Angola. Not a reassuring read. According to EDC, we the […]
Export Development Canada investigation into SNC-Lavalin
The news EDC is to investigate allegations that its support of SNC-Lavalin’s Matala Dam project in Angola was used to pay bribes has us on pins and needles. How thorough will the investigation be? Will we ever learn the results?
Confidence in the justice system rests on ‘SNC-Lavalin going to trial’: Economist Patricia Adams

Patricia Adams, economist and executive director at Probe International, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss why she thinks SNC-Lavalin must go through a criminal probe if Canadians are “ever to know who did what” in the case.
Put SNC-Lavalin on trial

DPAs don’t cut it, says Patricia Adams of Probe International. A trial here or elsewhere would not only expose who knew what and when within the firm; it would also expose who in government might have been involved.
Trudeau is making Canada safe for corruption again with the SNC-Lavalin case

Canada has come full circle, with prosecution of corporate crimes again determined by politics. Read the latest from Probe International’s Patricia Adams on SNC-Lavalin in today’s National Post opinion.
DPAs: Meet the legal tool central to the Prime Minister’s Office controversy

What are deferred prosecution agreements (or remediation agreements), how did Canada get them, what are the potential benefits and what are the down sides? Patricia Adams of Probe International is firmly in the latter camp: “… they turn the prosecutor into the prosecutor, the judge and the jury. Because of that they are undermining the rule of law — they are essentially political instruments.”
Repeal the Act and privatize this Canadian SOE
In its submission to Ottawa’s 2018 Legislative Review of the Export Development Act, Probe International calls for a repeal of the Act and the privatization of Export Development Canada (EDC). Probe argues the federal government’s export-financing agency shares many of the same characteristics as China’s controversial state-owned enterprises (SOEs), characteristics that ensure market distortion and stunt private development.
Ottawa orders Export Development Canada to examine lending practices
Activists call the agency “essentially self-governing” in the areas of environment, human rights and anti-corruption.
Canada could be about to make corporate ‘crime’ less criminal — and more lucrative

Patricia Adams: There’s no evidence that deferred prosecution agreements enhance anything other than agency budgets.
Decriminalizing corporate corruption

Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) make a mockery of the criminal justice system. Join Probe International as we get to the root of this problem at our final Grounds for Thought discussion night of the year: Tuesday, November 28 @8PM.
No DPAs
Read Probe International’s submission to the Government of Canada’s invitation to Canadians for their views on potential enhancements to the Integrity Regime and on considerations regarding the possible adoption of a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) regime in Canada. Probe International’s response: No DPAs. Learn why.
Deterrence lost in plea deals

Deferred prosecution agreements that let companies pay fines for wrongdoing could backfire by encouraging repeat criminality. Probe International’s Patricia Adams for the National Post.
No winners in corporate shakedown
DPAs were virtually unheard of in business settings prior to 2004, but their growing popularity in the U.S. is now being felt in Canada with SNC-Lavalin lobbying the Liberal government to have its fate determined by a DPA, rather than the criminal trial the Harper government pursued.
OPIC should go next
Ex-Im is one of dozens of corporate welfare programs that should end. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), like Ex-Im, hurts domestic competitors, privileges big lenders and is also known to fund questionable projects. Reason.com reports.
Canadian pensioners wade into China’s housing market
(April 16, 2014) Working Canadians are placing a bet on the Chinese real estate market thanks to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board that invests their obligatory pension contributions globally.