I will speak from what I know. I will not address pharmaceutical issues.
As you've seen from my presentation, my view is that all counterfeiting is bad. Of course, pharmaceuticals that injure or kill are even worse, but the fact that it's worse doesn't diminish the fact that counterfeiting itself is bad.
Why is it bad? I think we have the obligation, but also the chance, to reflect on what kind of society we want Canada to be. Our founding fathers gave us peace, order, and good government, and I think respect for the rule of law is an integral part of our culture. Do we want to send the message that it's okay to counterfeit some things and we'll just give the counterfeiters a slap on the wrist, and that for other things it's much more serious? I think when you lie, when you sell a counterfeit, it's wrong, no matter what the product is.
To answer your specific question, in terms of retailers, you are right, a number of retailers are selling counterfeits. In my line of work, we call that “brick and mortar” stores.
I thought your comment about the profits made by those retailers very interesting, because that is indeed an argument I use when I'm up against retailers. Here's how it works. We were saying earlier that when you have a consumer who buys a product at a low price, he probably knows he's buying a fake. I don't agree, because consumers are a special breed of people. They're people who need protection sometimes.