The original sin in the Trudeau versus Wilson-Raybould flap is the premise that corporations should be treated as people. Corporations are not people, they are legal entities created to serve the interests of their shareholders and are operated by people.
Those who operate a corporation should be held personally responsible for any illegal corporate actions.
According to the Financial Post (Feb. 19, 2015), at least one bribe amounted to $127 million, not exactly chump change even by Trumpian standards. The bribe was orchestrated and delivered by two top company officers. According to the Montreal Gazette (Feb. 19) the charges against one of the accused were stayed because of delay in prosecution.
Now because of lack of aggressive and timely prosecution, culpable individuals go unpunished, while thousands of innocent SNC-Lavalin employees might lose their jobs, Canada might lose a major company and investors who had no part in, nor knowledge of, the crime might suffer financially. Neither prosecution of the company nor a punitive remediation agreement with the company addresses the illegal acts of top company executives.
It is long past time to hold corporate executives personally responsible for the illegal actions of the corporations they manage.
Harvey Willliams
Victoria
