Bad Actors: Combatting Financial Crime in Canada
Roundtable Luncheon with Dr. Michelle Gallant, Dr. Christian Leuprecht and Jeff Simser
Sponsored by:
C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.
Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.
Dr. Michelle Gallant, Professor, Robson Hall Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba
Michelle is a Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. She holds a doctorate degree (King’s College London), an LLM (UBC), a JD (UNB) and a BA (UPEI). Her research and teaching interests lie in the fields of taxation law, tainted finance, civil forfeiture and money laundering law, philanthropy and law, and international law. Amongst others, her contributions to research and to service include founding Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba), Executive Director of the Manitoba Research Institute, Member of the Manitoba Law Reform Commission and Member of the Research Group, 2022-23 Public Order Emergency Commission.
Dr. Christian Leuprecht, Distinguished Professor, Royal Military College & Queen’s University
Dr. Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D. Queen’s) is Class of 1965 Distinguished Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal, Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute and the Centre for North American Prosperity and security, and he is also an Adjunct Research Professor in the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University. A former Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies at Yale University (2009-2010), Matthew Flinders Fellow at Flinders University of South Australia (2017-2018), Eisenhower Fellow at the NATO Defence College (2019), and Fulbright Research Chair in Canada–US Relations at John Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies (2020), he is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada, recipient of the Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research at the Royal Military College of Canada and past president of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee 01: Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution. He holds Ontario provincial appointments as chair of the Ontario Research Fund Advisory Board and to the Kingston Police Services Board; as well as to the scientific advisory board of the World Customs Organization, the UK’s Polar Institute and the OneSocietyNetwork. His recent books include Dirty Money: Financial Crime in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press) – #22 of the Hill-Times 100 Best Books of 2023 -- Security. Cooperation. Governance. The Canada-United States Open Border Paradox (University of Michigan Press, 2023), Patterns in Border Security: Regional Comparisons (Routledge, 2023), Polar Cousins: Comparing Antarctic and Arctic Geostrategic Futures (University of Calgary Press, 2022), and Intelligence as Democratic Statecraft (Oxford University Press, 2021). He is series editor of Canada: State of the Federation, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and is a member of the editorial boards of Armed Forces & Society, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics and the Springer book series in Advances in Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. He previously held a federal appointment to the Council of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and served as Associate Dean as well as Deputy Head.
Jeff Simser, Barrister and Solicitor; former Legal Director, Ministry of the Attorney General
Jeffrey Simser was Canada’s first director of civil forfeiture and served with the Ministry of the Attorney General in Toronto, Canada for over thirty years. He is one of Canada’s leading experts on money laundering and asset forfeiture law. He holds law degrees from Queens University at Kingston and Osgoode Hall Law School. He currently has a law practice in Toronto. In 2024, he became a senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute, RUSI, in the UK. Mr. Simser is the author of two published books, Canadian Anti-Money laundering Law: The Gaming Sector and Civil Asset Forfeiture in Canada (loose-leaf). He has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, including a chapter in the recently published Dirty Money: Financial Crime in Canada (2023). Mr. Simser was twice qualified as an expert witness at the Commission of Inquiry into Money Laundering in British Columbia (the Cullen Commission) and recently testified before the Standing Committee on Finance to address money laundering issues. Mr. Simser provides advice, training, and support to law enforcement in jurisdictions across Canada and around the world (including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Philippines, Guatemala, and Kenya). In January and February of 2024, he was the course coordinator for 8 webinars called the Lifecycle of Dirty Money, sponsored by VACI, TI Canada and the Anti-Corruption Law Program at Allard Law School.
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