Canada Re-Introduces Auto Theft Legislation
May 5, 2010
Canada's Department of Justice has re-introduced a bill in the Senate that seeks to create a separate offence for motor vehicle theft and stop the trafficking of property obtained by crime.
"Our government is taking action to protect Canadians, their property and their communities," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a press release. "Auto theft is estimated to cost Canadians more than $1 billion each year, and the dangerous driving that sometimes results makes Canadian roads unsafe. Auto theft is also one of the criminal enterprises on which organized crime depends."
The proposed legislation would:
- create a separate offence of "theft of a motor vehicle," which would carry a mandatory prison sentence of six months for conviction of a third or subsequent offence when the prosecutor proceeds by indictment;
- establish a new offence for altering, destroying or removing a vehicle identification number (VIN);
- make it an offence to traffic in property obtained by crime; and
- make it an offence to possess such property for the purpose of trafficking.
Nicholson is re-introducing the bill after it was held up in a Liberal-dominated Senate in 2009. The Conservatives now have a plurality of seats in the Senate.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says its investigations over the past few years have shown that organized auto theft rings are targeting high-end or desirable vehicles with the intention of exporting them overseas or chopping them for parts.
Auto theft is big business, IBC investigators have noted in the past, and has gone beyond the public's stereotype of isolated thieves stealing cars just to go out on joyrides.