Allegations
of Impropriety
January 20, 2003
Minister of National Revenue
Mr. Maurice Vellacott, MP
Saskatoon-Wanuskewin
Unit 3 - 844 51st Street East
Saskatoon, SK S7K 5C7
Dear Colleague:
This is in response to your letter of October 2, 2002, addressed to Mr.
Paul Vienneau, former Manager of Customs Investigations in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, in which you make various allegations of impropriety. The
letter was distributed to various parties before the Agency could respond
and, regrettably, was quoted in an interview on CTV's CANADA AM show on
October 31, 2002. Given the nature of your allegations and the
unfortunate manner in which this matter has unfolded, I felt it
appropriate that I respond personally.
In that letter, you question the authority of Canada Customs to enforce
border legislation, in particular, the legislation relating to the export
of grain to the United States. You also condemn the personal
character of Mr. Vienneau, by accusing him of showing contemptuous behaviour
toward a Parliamentarian. i would like to take this opportunity to
address the issues raised in your letter.
To beg with, you question Canada Customs' authority in relation to some
of the enforcement actions taken regarding wheat exports. I can
assure you that the Agency's actions with respect to infractions under the
Customs Act and Canadian Wheat Board Act were based on
proper authority as determined, at that time, through extensive consultations
with legal counsel. The criminal courts in Manitoba, Saskatchewan
and Alberta have upheld convictions for the illegal export of grain and in
doing so acknowledge the legal authority on which these charges are
based. You have chosen in your letter to reference only selective
excerpts of your June 1997 meeting.
As you know, sections 3 and 5 of the Reporting of Exported Goods
require exporters of goods to make a report in writing under section 95 of
the Customs Act and to provide any licences, permits or other
documents relating to those goods. Failure to do so can also result
in civil penalties. These penalties are, of course, subject to
appeal, and currently a number of these cases are under review by the
Customs Appeals Directorate, pending my final decision.
I would also like to allay your concerns regarding the existence and
availability of Customs Memoranda. These documents, referred to
internally as "D-Memos" are distributed to all regional Customs
offices and are available to the public upon request. It is
unfortunate that our Customs office did not have a copy of D19-3-2
"Exportation of Wheat and Barley Products" at the time of Mr.
Dillen's inquiries and I apologize for any inconvenience this may have
caused. I have attached a copy of the D-Memo for your information
and should you wish to have copies of other D-Memos mailed to your office
it can be ordered through the Canadian Communications Group at (819)
956-4802. It may interest you to know that, contrary to your
understanding, this memo was first published in November of 1994.
Finally, I would like to express my disappointment with the way this
issue has been handled. The tone of your remarks was unnecessary.
The wide circulation of your letter prior to a response from the Agency
led to its inaccurate comments being aired in public. As a result,
the integrity of a respected and long-serving official has been unfairly
challenged.
In responding to your initial inquiries, Mr. Vienneau was expressing
Canada Customs' position and policy. Any disagreement you may have
with Customs policy, or Canada's grain export policy, should not be the
subject of personal attacks against Agency officials.
Despite your claims to the contrary, I assure you that employees of the
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency take very seriously their mission to
contribute to the economic and social well being of Canadians through
responsible enforcement of Canada's tax, trade and border legislation.
Should you have any additional questions or comments, please do not
hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Elinor Caplan
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