White Collar Crime is a Crime of Violence. Diane Francis

“..White-collar crime is a violent act. By my rough account, there have been at least half a dozen suicides by investors who are victimized and lost everything as a result of the Bre-X debacle. That's just the ones that came to my attention during a book research. How many people in other mining outfits lost their savings? How many marriages fail because of this? How many people lost their health because of the fraud? Or their houses and lifestyles? How many children's lives were affected? White-collar crime is violent because it mugs lives, livelihoods and self-esteem. That's why the American judges are correct in imposing tough sentences on these people. And yet no one has been charged or even investigated in Canada for Bre-X because the case would be too expensive for the cash-starved Mounties.... ” Source Diane Francis, “White collar crooks: U.S. hits them hard”, Financial Post, March 22, 2005 pgFP2[the Bre-X scandal cost investors an estimated $ 9 billion]