Investigator corner: Canadian realities for Europeans looking West--guest column by Roman Bazikalov
Roman Bazikalov is a licensed private investigator with over two decades in the industry. He has worked on thousands of cases from organized crime to theft of intellectual property, but the twist here is that he is of Ukrainian origin and based in Canada. In this column he gives points to those companies based in CEE or in Western Europe who are beginning to take a hard look at moving west.
I love Canada. It’s my second home; my home away from home (Ukraine being my first). I have lived here longer than anywhere else. I consider myself a local by all standards, be it the newly acquired cultural mentality, my personal associations, or my professional work ethics.
Moreover, Canada is one of the best countries in the world when it comes to democratic freedoms, protection of human rights, educational and business opportunities. It’s a place where you can be anyone and do anything if your qualifications allow you to practice it. We Canadians are one of the most tolerant cultures on the planet, and we take pride in that.
However, this "tolerance" also expands to some areas of business and law where it makes difficult for victims of certain crimes to receive justice and return what has been lost in the act of an offense, be it criminal or civil. Although Canada’s legal system has independent judges, well-trained lawyers, well-written laws, and an open court process, it is the complexity of navigating the justice system that makes it difficult, expensive and unpredictable.
First and foremost, the biggest obstacle to a fair and due process, is our insufficient court capacity and bureaucratic and outdated court processes. The system is archaic and crippled by delays and there aren’t enough qualified staff. That is why enforcing contracts is a nightmare. Not only you will be most likely waiting two to three years to actually bring a civil action to trial, but even when you win (if you win, of course) and receive the judgement in your favour, collecting on the judgement might prove to be a futile endeavour.
That’s because of the second reason: our privacy laws. Canadian privacy laws governed by PIPEDA, The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the federal privacy law that regulates how private-sector organizations handle personal information when engaging in “commercial activity,” do not allow private parties to access information necessary to garner on the judgement. Lawyers can request whatever information they want, but it doesn’t mean that the opposing party will provide it in a timely manner or will provide truthful information, since there is no way to verify it.
Apart from the federal privacy law, each province in Canada has their own regulations and limit access to private information. Some provinces allow to search for criminal records without authorization, but most don’t. Some provinces allow the search for private property by name, but some don’t. Accessing credit reports or banking accounts without authorization is prohibited. Due to these limitations and variations, it’s very difficult to locate a person in Canada, especially if province of residence is unknown or limited information on the person is provided.
This means that if you are planning on doing business in the province of Quebec, you must understand that French will be the official language on all documents, contracts, and fine print. Moreover, one will also be facing language barriers in the court of law. Although English is ostensibly the second language in the province, French is definitely preferable.
The third reason is that it becomes expensive to locate, investigate and enforce whatever breach of contract, fraud, or another malfeasance you might be facing. Those who commit fraud, hide behind the privacy laws and know very well that it will be very difficult to locate them and pin them with an offence. The system is designed in such a way that corporate directors and shareholders share minimal information when they set up companies and corporate structure. They hide behind lawyers and accountants, and make sure that their financial profiles are held with certain banks, and that their personal assets are well hidden, and won’t be located with the threat of being seized during legal proceedings.
Therefore my advice--prior to engaging in any business-related activity in Canada--is to at the minimum consult with a private investigator. Hire a reputable firm who will review your case or your plans on merging with or acquiring a local entity, signing contracts, but especially if you are considering taking someone to court. Knowledgeable and experienced private investigators will conduct a preliminary searches and will provide you with a comprehensive idea of your potential litigation steps and whether they will have any value going forward.
The upside is that a rivate investigator’s costs are typically two to three times cheaper than lawyer’s fees. It takes private investigator’s twice as little time to evaluate the situation, obtain relevant intelligence, and provide a case analysis. Private investigators often have more resources to go through and look at a case from a different angle, considering various risks. They are also not interested in prolonging the mandate indefinitely and do not ask for large retainers. Instead, they concentrate on gathering of evidence efficiently and analyzing information to provide clients with a best-case scenario, not only in a short run, but also in a long run, where a client’s time and resources spent on the matter will proportionally increase as the time goes on without a feasible resolution.
It is more proficient and cheaper to conduct deep due-diligence and background checks prior to any engagement and then monitor for the duration of that engagement then it is to try to mitigate when a business relationship has been deeply developed. In short, the latter is inefficient and costly, and most importantly at that point it is often too late to recover anything. Yet by taking the right steps early a client can get ahead before a negative situation arises or at least mitigate this earlier and with better chances of success.
Final thoughts: Canada is still a very attractive market to conduct business. It has robust intellectual property laws and is part of several international IP treaties--and in general it is committed to innovation and development. Moreover, the country's corporate taxes are lower than in the U.S. at 15% vs 18%, respectively. Moreover, Canada has entered trade pacts with many of the most prominent markets around the globe (NAFTA, CETA, CPTPP, etc.). Another advantage is that wehen it comes to the justice system, most legal cases can be opened electronically. Documents can be filed and accessed online, and dealing with legal professionals is not as expensive in comparison to other markets.
That said, when entering the Canadian market, make sure to conduct proper due diligence. Don’t simply rely on corporate documents being shown to you (or pictures of a beautiful office). Hire professionals to consult and dig under the surface. Canadian opportunities are plentiful, but remember, the Titanic, the most advanced ship of its times, sank due to overconfidence of the crew...
And when it navigated Canadian waters.
More about the author:
Roman Bazikalov is a licensed private investigator with over two decades in the industry. He has worked on thousands of cases from organized crime to theft of intellectual property, from workers compensation to industrial espionage, from cargo theft to labour disputes, and then fraud, matrimonial cases, child abuse, drugs, money laundering, and everything else in between. Roman holds an Honours B.Soc.Sc in Criminology and Minor in Psychology from the University of Ottawa, which provided him with a solid understanding of the Canadian justice system as well as human behaviour. He to various degrees communicates in multiple languages: English, French, Hebrew, Italian, Russian and Ukrainian. He is a Certified Legal Investigator (CLI), Certified International Investigator (CII), and a Certified Master Investigator (CPIO-MI). He is also a member of many prestigious Canadian, American, and international associations of Private Investigators and Detectives, and was recently elected to serve on the board of NALI as an International Regional Director.
Photo credit--Sherlock Holmes movie still, Goldwyn Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.