Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for being with us today.
I would like to respond to a comment made by my colleague across the way, which was that perhaps the situation we're facing today is the 21st century version of what happened 40 years ago with an anonymous letter. I couldn't disagree more. Certainly the anonymous letter was a threat, but it was probably seen by a few people at most.
Here we have a situation in which a threat is seen by millions of Canadians, and possibly by billions of viewers worldwide. I think it's a huge difference in terms of the implications of the potential threat that we as parliamentarians open ourselves up to.
You pointed out rightly that when we enter politics, we are very much aware of the risks we take on in terms of criticism. None of us expect to do our job without criticism, and you've indicated that we develop a rather tough skin to be able to face that and deal with it.
Another colleague commented earlier and implied that because something's posted on YouTube, there's really not much we can do. I think to accept that we just have to go on as normal is perhaps too easy a way out. If threats are made, especially against a public official, is it not reasonable for us to expect that there would at least be a criminal investigation in terms of the livelihood of the person who is being threatened?