ALTHOUGH VIOLENT crime pervades the mass media and dominates public perception about the crime problem in Canada, white-collar and corporate crimes actually do more harm, cost more money, and ruin more lives. The Canadian economic history is, in fact, filled with white-collar and corporate crimes and illegalities.

Federal statistics show an annual increase of seven percent in the incidence of white-collar and corporate crimes. A Statistics Canada report in the early 1980s found the number of workplace deaths attributed to unsafe or illegal working conditions to be equivalent to the number of street homicides. This does not include “lingering deaths” resulting from exposure to “hazardous workplace pollutants.” According to some studies, Canadians pay increased taxes and prices for consumer goods amounting to as much as $20 ...