MONTREAL - After losing much of their life savings in Ponzi scams, these new activists are hoping to shake off the stigma of victimhood and take on financial fraudsters.
With their accused swindler Earl Jones nowhere in sight as his lawyer won a three-week postponement in his fraud case Monday, supposed victims waved signs and chanted slogans outside the Montreal courthouse.
About 100 alleged victims of the ex-financial planner and others who have been defrauded held a rally on behalf of a new Canada-wide, anti-white collar crime organization called the Be Strong Movement.
Victims of white-collar crime say they're trying to escape that victimization label and become a force for change.
Janet Watson, of Sherbrooke, Que., who lost her retirement savings when Quebec's securities regulator shut down an investment company called Mount Real in 2005, has felt the full spectrum of emotions.
"Shock, anger, frustration . . . finally you want to become proactive," said Watson, who has been compiling a Canada-wide registry of fraud victims and has helped create the group.
"It's very important that we do not consider ourselves victims, but activists, and that's what we're trying to do."
Some victims have taken on responsibilities such as helping to organize support groups.
Others have helped renegotiate about 20 mortgages, giving victims a one-year reprieve while they assess their finances.
Monday's protest coincided with the start of another high-profile trial involving five executives of the Norbourg investment firm, who face hundreds of fraud-related charges between them.
Outside the courthouse, alleged victims gathered signatures while calling for tougher sentences and better safeguards against financial predators.
Similar endeavours were loosely planned for other parts of Canada -- including Calgary, where an alleged Ponzi scheme involving a gold investment allegedly saw more than 3,000 people bilked of up to $400 million.
Jones, whose next court date has been scheduled for Oct. 19, is free on bail after being charged with four counts each of fraud and theft.
A police investigation is ongoing. So far, more than 150 people have filed claims that they were defrauded or owed money by Jones, for a total of about $75 million.
But public sympathy is not entirely on their side, acknowledged Joey Davis, president of Be Strong and the son of an alleged victim.
Members of the public have grumbled that alleged victims have no one to blame for their financial losses but themselves, and should have kept better tabs.
Jones' alleged victims included dozens of elderly widows who lived on very modest income and relied on him to handle their day-to-day finances. In many cases, they now appear penniless.
"Reaction has been mixed: You have some people that say (victims) were very greedy and ignorant," said Davis.
"But some are fully understanding and sympathetic. There is a wide variation in responses, but we would like to raise the public's awareness on the issue."
Clinical psychologist Pierre Faubert, curious to see how the alleged victims are coping, said it's important not to stay angry and vengeful.
"Even though they're calling themselves victims, I think they're going to go beyond the victimization and go on to healing," Faubert said.
"They've told me the more they talk about it, they realize that they are no longer victims."
