36315 World Bank Group v. Kevin Wallace, Zulfiquar Bhuiyan, Ramesh Shah, Mohammad Ismail, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada
Public international law – Jurisdictional immunity – Criminal law
On appeal from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The individual respondents (the “accused”) are jointly charged with one count of bribing foreign public officials under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, S.C. 1998, c. 34, in relation to SNC-Lavalin’s bid for a construction supervision contract for the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh. In the course of their criminal proceeding, the accused brought an application for an order requiring the applicant third party to produce certain documents. The applicant had received information from tipsters about possible corruption involving SNC-Lavalin, and had had approached the RCMP, providing it with information concerning the allegations. Two of the applicant’s employees subpoenaed by the defence did not appear before the court and the applicant took the position that it was not required to attend given its immunity from court process as an international organization. The defence’s application for an order requiring the production of documents by the applicant was granted in part by the Superior Court of Justice on the basis that the applicant had waived its immunity. The applicant was ordered to produce certain records for court review in accordance with R. v. O’Connor, [1995] 4 S.C.R. 411.
