The Conservative government is vowing to crack down on white-collar crime, and promises to impose jail sentences for offences such as fraud.
The Harper government said Thursday it won't back down from taking a hard line, despite claims by the Bloc Quebecois that the government has sat idle on cases like that of alleged fraudster Earl Jones, while convicts often get off easy.
"We have ten pieces of legislation before Parliament right now and we need help getting these things through and we have not been getting that help from the opposition parties," said Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.
Ex-Norbourg CEO Vincent Lacroix was granted bail in June after serving one-sixth of his slated jail time. He bilked as many as 9,200 investors out of $100 million.
South of the border, fraudster Bernie Madoff was sentenced in June to 150 years jail time after he frauded clients out of over $50 billion.
For the alleged victims of self-proclaimed financial adviser Earl Jones, the Canadian track record comes as little comfort. Still, they're hopeful the Tories will put their feet down when it comes to financial crime.
"We were assured two weeks ago, in fact last week, from (Public Works) Minister (Christian) Paradis, that they were going to be working very closely with us," said Joey Davis of the Earl Jones Victims Group Committee.
Quebec's securities regulator claims Jones swindled at least 50 investors out of more than $30 million. Jones has been charged with four counts of fraud and four counts of theft, and returns to court Sept. 28.
