Obviously the reason I ask this is that if we are to consider making adjustments to the legislation, it would be helpful to know which parts of the legislation are not being complied with; under which sections it's possible to achieve successful prosecutions; under which ones it's not in fact possible to achieve successful prosecutions, even though there may be some evidence that the practices the act purports to forbid are not successfully being prevented by the act—that kind of thing.
Perhaps I should pose this next question in the form of a request. If it's not already available—we'll be happy to dig up any information that is publicly available, but if it's not—I wonder whether we could get, for a reasonable number of years in the past, a report broken down, as I mentioned, by the number of complaints that were made, by whom, what number were acted upon, and perhaps also to some degree the outcomes—although I know that is publicly available—and under which of the sections of the act.
That would be of enormous use to the committee. I think all of us would find it very helpful.
The next thing I wanted to ask is this. I'm trying to get a confirmation here of how prosecutions take place under the act. I've been reading a copy of the act. I'll cite from it and then ask whether I've understood it correctly.
Subsection 511(1) of the act says: If the Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds that an offence under this Act has been committed and is of the view that the public interest justifies it, the Commissioner may institute a prosecution or cause one to be instituted.
Subsection 512(1) says: No prosecution for an offence under this Act may be instituted by a person other than the Commissioner without the Commissioner’s prior written consent.
Am I correct that this means no other person in Canada can initiate a prosecution, except by means of approaching the commissioner and having the commissioner accept its possible validity and then continue it further? Would that be correct, Mr. Commissioner?