OTTAWA – Edmonton-Leduc Member of Parliament James Rajotte welcomed legislation introduced by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Rob Nicholson, to help combat identity theft, which has been identified as a fast growing problem throughout North America.

 “I am very pleased that our government has introduced comprehensive legislation to combat identity theft across Canada to protect Canadians' personal information,” said Mr. Rajotte.

 Mr. Rajotte's private member's bill, Bill C-299, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Canada Evidence Act and the Competition Act (personal information obtained by fraud), was passed unanimously by the House of Commons in June, 2007.  This bill addressed one aspect of identity theft, a practice known as “pretexting.”  Pretexting is the intent to obtain information under false pretenses with the intent to commit a criminal offence.

 The Minister of Justice acknowledged Mr. Rajotte’s work on this issue, stating: “I would like to thank M.P. James Rajotte for his hard work in helping bring forward the issue of identity theft to Parliament,” said the Hon. Rob Nicholson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. “Mr. Rajotte’s Private Member’s Bill helped pave the way to this Government’s ID theft legislation. We are taking action to better protect Canadians by stopping identity theft activity before the damage is done.” 

 “This Government is following through on its commitment to give police the tools they need to better protect Canadians by stopping identity theft activity before the damage is done,” said Minister Nicholson.  “I have tabled legislation that will make it an offence to obtain, possess or traffic in other people’s identity information if it is to be used to commit a crime.”

The misuse of another person’s identity information, generally referred to as identity fraud, is covered by current offences in the Criminal Code, such as personation and forgery.  But the preparatory steps of collecting, possessing and trafficking in identity information are generally not captured by existing offences.  The proposed legislation would create three new offences directly targeting aspects of the identity theft problem, all subject to five-year maximum sentences:

• Obtaining or possessing identity information with intent to use it to commit certain crimes;
• Trafficking in identity information with knowledge of or recklessness as to its intended use in the commission of certain crime; and
• Unlawfully possessing and trafficking in government-issued identity documents.

Additional Criminal Code amendments would create new offence of fraudulently redirecting or causing redirection of a person’s mail, possessing a counterfeit Canada Post mail key and possessing instruments for copying credit card information, in addition to the existing offence of possessing instruments for forging credit cards.

Moreover, a new power would also be added permitting the court to order, as part of a sentence, that an offender be required to pay restitution to a victim of identity theft or identity fraud where the victim has incurred expenses related to rehabilitating their identity, such as the cost of replacement cards and documents and costs in relation to correcting their credit history.

This legislative proposal is one in a new series of tackling community crime bills the Government of Canada will be introducing in this new session of Parliament.  This series is in addition to the comprehensive Tackling Violent Crime Act that aims to better protect youth from sexual predators, protect society from dangerous offenders, get serious with drug impaired drivers and toughen sentencing and bail for those who commit serious gun crimes.

In addition to its plan to protect Canadians against identity theft, the Government of Canada has:

• introduced a National Anti-Drug Strategy, including legislation that would provide mandatory jail time for serious drug crimes;
• tabled legislation to strengthen the Youth Criminal Justice Act; and announced a comprehensive review of this Act in 2008;
• invested in crime prevention community projects across Canada that target youth;
• passed legislation to increase penalties for those convicted of street racing; and
• passed legislation to end conditional sentences for serious crimes such as personal injury offences.

An online version of the legislation will be available at www.parl.gc.ca

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For further information, contact James Rajotte (613) 992-3594 or (780) 495-4351