Canada will toughen its laws to be better able to combat corruption by Canadian businesses at home and abroad, the government said on Tuesday following the recent bribery conviction of a Calgary oil company. "Our government ... expects Canadian business to play by the rules. Canadian companies can compete with the best and win fairly," Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement. Baird said existing laws on the bribery of foreign officials would be amended to grant the government jurisdiction over all Canadian nationals and Canadian companies, regardless of where alleged crimes took place. That would make it easier to prosecute cases in foreign countries, he said. Canada will also raise the maximum penalty for bribing a foreign official to 14 years from the current five years. In January, a Calgary-based oil company that admitted to bribing the wife of a Chadian diplomat in Canada to secure an oil and gas contract agreed to pay a C$10.35 million ($10.35 million) fine. Also
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