Gerald Heinrichs is a lawyer in Regina, SaskatchewanAlberta-based North Economics reports that in 2022, Canada's five largest banks recorded $7.73 billion in non-interest retail bank profits. That’s about $250 for every Canadian.North Economics managing director Alain de Brossart broke it down, stating, “Canadian banks have done a very good job of extracting as many fees out of people as possible.”But banks don’t get anything when Canadians pay with cash. A profit-obsessed banker might say every cash transaction is a lost bank fee — and getting rid of cash would be a jackpot dream..In 2024, the U.S. Federal Reserve reported that six per cent of adults had no bank account at all. This group, sometimes called the “unbanked,” isn’t the only one that relies heavily on cash. For a variety of reasons — age, geography, lifestyle, personal philosophy, or distrust of banks — many people prefer using cash.Cash is absolutely essential for businesses like farmgate and stall vendors. It’s also necessary for a wide range of small start-ups, from T-shirt sellers to tech support providers. Cash is the grease on many wheels of enterprise.Moreover, from time to time, every Canadian may have their own personal reason to rely on cash — investment, security, privacy or fear. It’s one of those freedoms you carry in your back pocket. Just because you don’t need it today doesn’t mean you won’t want it tomorrow..Among these countless citizen activities, none involve illegal things like drug trafficking or money laundering. Only someone blind to these many legitimate purposes would ask the government to do something as radical as restricting how Canadians can use their cash.There is, however, a circle of people who want to eliminate cash as soon as possible. Kenneth Rogoff, a former IMF official, is one of them. His book The Curse of Cash argues that cash is little more than the dirty currency of crime and tax evasion. The book is popular with those who care little for individual freedom or small business.But there’s another important point: electronic transactions, unlike cash, create a record — of the things you buy, the places you go, and the people and causes you support. What you do with your money is an intimate window into your privacy..That kind of giant privacy invasion is already well underway in communist China. The Chinese Communist Party’s monitoring system is called Social Credit. It tracks citizens’ behaviour and hands out government rewards or punishments based on what it deems “good” or “bad” conduct.According to The Economist, it’s a “new form of social control” by a “digital dictatorship.” And surveillance of money transactions is part of this disturbing government plan.It is therefore deeply unsettling that one of the Carney government’s first priorities is to start limiting how Canadians can use their cash.Bill C-2 had its first reading in Parliament on June 3. Under the banner of security and public safety, Part 11 of the bill makes it a crime for any Canadian to receive “a cash payment, donation or deposit of $10,000 or more.” To ensure there are no loopholes, the crime includes “foreign currency” and applies to “a single transaction” or a “series of related transactions.”.The government says it needs to impose these laws on Canadians to combat a new and hazy threat called “illicit financing.”How many Canadians were even aware of this supposed threat — let alone that it required such drastic action against every one of them?Our police already have extensive powers to find, seize, and investigate criminal stores of cash. These include search warrants and electronic surveillance, all supported by an almost bottomless public purse. Mafia criminals may appear powerful, but they are pipsqueaks compared to the might of the state.Canadians want police to fight crime, and would support greater enforcement against criminal suspects — such as specialized units and stronger search powers for illicit cash.The right solution is better police resources. The wrong and twisted solution is what the Carney government is doing: attacking every Canadian and criminalizing what was never a crime before..If it’s more than $10,000, it will soon be a crime to use cash to buy your car or pay for a home renovation. Business contracts involving cash payments over that threshold will become a new kind of commercial offence.The Liberal government’s claim that this drastic law is necessary for public safety is difficult to believe. How many rotten leaders of the past have used the pretext of “security” to take away freedom?One of the worst, Hermann Goering, infamously said, “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked.”In recent months, many have been asking what defines Canada. If this bad law becomes reality, it will reinforce a growing and unfortunate answer: Canada is the place where the government takes away freedom — and the people let it happen.Gerald Heinrichs is a lawyer in Regina Saskatchewan.
