ADVISORY: Senator Ratna Omidvar to Announce the Tabling of the Frozen Assets Repurposing Act to Assist the Forcibly Displaced

Ratna Omidvar Senate of Canada March 20, 2019 Bill S-259, frozen assets, migration, refugees

(Ottawa, March 20) – Senator Ratna Omidvar, joined by Allan Rock and Fen Hampson from the CIGI-sponsored World Refugee Council, will hold a press conference to announce the tabling of the Frozen Assets Repurposing Act.

The Magnitsky Act and other legislation authorizes the Government of Canada to freeze the assets of foreign corrupt officials. The Bill takes the next step. Acting on a recommendation from the World Refugee Council, the Bill will authorize Canadian courts, on the application of the Attorney General of Canada, to confiscate the frozen assets and repurpose them for the benefit of people harmed by those foreign officials.

In short, the Bill will make it possible for Canada to confiscate assets held here by foreign officials whose mis-rule created forced displacement and other humanitarian needs, and to use the proceeds to help those who they victimized.

Media Availability
Date: March 21, 2019
Time: 10 am
Location: West Block Room 135 B

Quick Facts (source: World Refugee Council)

Nearly 70 million people around the world, half of them children, fled persecution and conflict, sought asylum or were internally displaced in 2017, and those numbers are rising every year.
The United Nations, humanitarian agencies, the private sector and civil society face enormous hurdles and funding shortages to support refugees.
The authoritarian regimes responsible for displacing people are often not held accountable, and act with impunity.
Worldwide, the World Bank estimates that $20 to $40 billion per year are stolen by corrupt public officials.

About the World Refugee Council

The World Refugee Council was formed in May 2017 by the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) with the support of the Government of Canada and other partners. Led by former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy, the Council is an independent, global body composed of nearly two dozen political leaders, policy advisers and academic experts, including a Nobel prize winner, a business leader, civil society actors and human rights activists from around the world. In its major report, A Call to Action: Transforming the Global Refugee System, the Council seeks to strengthen the global response beyond the United Nations and its global compacts on refugees and for migration. www.worldrefugeecouncil.org