Sure. I think it's self-evident that not only do we want to empower consumers. We say very often that the best way to empower consumers in our society is to give them more power, money, and control in the choices about how they want to live their lives. We believe in doing that through tax relief, economic freedom, and personal responsibility, but at the same protecting consumers from those who would do them harm.
As I say, we have a number of examples here of products that would do consumers harm, particularly when they are presented in the marketplace and look absolutely identical to the parallel products that are put forward by the actual manufacturers of these products. As an example, as the former minister for the Olympics, I think anybody passing through a store would see this jersey here and think this looks exactly as it ought to. It actually feels the same. The fabric feels the same, the numbers are twill, and everything looks as it ought to, but these are counterfeit goods that are bogus and that are in our marketplace and ripping off consumers.
They're also taking great Canadian brands and maligning them. It's not only a problem for the sake of national identity, I think, but when companies like Canada Goose and others have their products ripped off, and people take these products home and use them, and they malfunction, they tell their friends and their friends' friends not to buy those products because they are defective. It hurts the economy.
Certainly, in protecting consumers, we've heard stories in the past, some of them from Canada and some from other jurisdictions around the world, of unsafe toothpaste and of toys that have lead in them. These are things that are self-evident we need to fight against, and this is why we need legislation like what is before you: so those whose rights are being violated have recourse in order to protect intellectual property that is being abused in the marketplace.
As an aspect of the broader consumer agenda, I think the benefits of the legislation are self-evident.