I think it is extremely important that we have a clear message about contraband, and by clear message I don't simply mean a message about the new deterrent penalties and so on, but a message about what contraband actually is. While I'm sure most people know something is wrong or perhaps illegal with buying contraband from the smoke shack on reserve, the fact remains that most people who do it get away with it. That's not to criticize our law enforcement personnel, it's just that the numbers are what they are.
If I'm driving to Smokin Joes on Highway 2 outside Belleville, just inside the Tyendinaga line and buying contraband every week and no one bothers me about it, because I'm small fry, do I think it's really illegal? I'm not sure I know whether it's illegal or not. The bottom line is I can get away with it. If I can buy a carton or two from somebody with a truck outside Loblaws—I know several locations in Toronto where that happens—do I think that's illegal? Probably, but again, I'm getting away with it.
I think part of the challenge for law enforcement with its resources that are somewhat straightened, is getting to these many instances of local purchase. But if there is no message from the government about what is illegal and what isn't.... Especially now with Bill C-10, with the criminalization of trafficking and the whole contraband trade, this is a wonderful opportunity to say that the game has changed. You may have thought that contraband was this or that these cigarettes were not precisely illegal, now they are, now there's jail time, now the game has changed, and then something about the health effects.
It's a wonderful opportunity to change the whole way we look at contraband.