Morning Cup'a Joe

Apparently, the lower mainland's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team thinks that it's job is PR for the RCMP and not investigating homicides.

Also, a good article in the Toronto Star this morning about deficiencies in securities regulation enforcement. Topical for me, as I'm in the library studying for a securities regulation exam right now and I just attended a lecture by the director of litigation enforcement for the BC Securities Commission last week. I like this article because it addresses some legal nuances that journalist often overlook - like the differences between regulatory and criminal offenses, and the necessary divide in enforcement jurisdiction between regulators and law enforcement. I would have liked to have seen them dig a bit deeper into the reasons for the disparity in enforcement action between the SEC and the OSC. Are the reasons systemic to their respective statutory regimes that render enforcement easier or more effective in the US? Is the constitutional jurisprudence in the US such that there are fewer barriers to passing off evidence collected in regulatory investigations to criminal investigators? I know that criminal securities enforcement in New York went way up under former Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. What criminal enforcement measures did he implement to acheive those successes?

At any rate, this is the money quote for me:

If you did a cost-benefit economic model, Canada would be the place to go for white-collar crime. Your chance of detection is small and the consequences for getting caught are not high.

Regulatory offenses are designed to raise the cost non-compliance to a level where compliance becomes economically beneficial in comparison. If that is not happening, then the regulatory regime is not working.


And a little tidbit on congestion pricing. Seems like a great idea to me, as a city dweller. Less cars in the city and an increase in transit passengers that would bring in desperately needed funds to upgrade our transit system. Though it seems like it would be harder to implement in Vancouver where there are no major highways running into downtown that could act as a bottleneck to collect tolls. I guess you could charge at the bridges - Lion's Gate, Second Narrows, Port Mann, Knight Street, Oak Street and Arthur Laing.