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Loan sharks: desperation, danger and debt

Broadcast Date: Aug. 7, 1977

Strapped for cash and in need of a loan, some Canadians can't turn to the traditional sources. A bad credit record or "sub-prime borrower" designation forces some desperate Canadians into a more dangerous route. Loan sharks don't discriminate against high-risk or bad credit borrowers, but the money comes at a high-price: interest rates upward of 1,000 per cent and the threat of beatings, kidnapping and murder in case of late or missing payments. In this 1998 clip, CBC-Radio takes you inside the high-stakes world of loan sharking, including a threat-laced phone conversation between a shark and his prey.

This clip contains foul and threatening language.

Loan sharks: desperation, danger and debt

• According to the Criminal Code of Canada, the highest allowable rate of interest on a loan is 60 per cent.

• A more formal term for high-interest money lending is "usury," derived from the Latin term usuria (interest). Although the word is strictly defined as "the practice of lending money at a rate of interest," it has come to represent the charging of exploitative or illegal rates.

• One of history's most famous moneylenders, or loan sharks, is a fictional one: Shylock, from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. The Jewish moneylender is portrayed in a negative light through most of the play, leading to many accusations that the play, or the writer, was an anti-Semite, including in this charged 1965 debate from CBC-TV''s Fighting Words.

• Usury is forbidden in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, although some exceptions exist. The Torah permits charging interest to non-Israelites, which led to a historical trend of Christians turning to Jews to borrow money. Over time, Christian debtors accused Jewish lenders of usury and such accusations developed into anti-Semitic displays.

Loan sharks: desperation, danger and debt

Medium: Radio

Program: Sunday Morning

Broadcast Date: Aug. 7, 1977

Guest(s): Anthony Abbott, Herb Gray, Solly Levine

Reporter: Alvin Cader, Terence McKenna

Duration: 12:29

Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Ju-Lee

Last updated:
Jan. 30, 2009