Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here today, and thank the Auditor General for her report. We've been seeing a lot of her lately, and I appreciate all the work she does.
Over the last few years, we've seen a fairly dramatic increase in online child exploitation. Basically, any child with a connection to the Internet is at risk. In particular, we've had several boys who were exploited through video game chats commit suicide.
A year ago, I had the opportunity to visit the RCMP's national child exploitation crime centre. I got to see the work that Mr. Larkin does there.
Mr. Larkin, what's your department seeing? Are there any trends around this?
How does this interface with some of the child exploitation happening around first nations communities, but also with what's happening from Canada to other countries around the world?
I recently had the ambassador from the Philippines complimenting Canada on our co-operation with the Philippines, but she was also frustrated that we don't necessarily have the same presence in the Philippines, like some other countries do. We have one RCMP officer stationed in the Philippines, while other countries have a significant number of police officers because the exploitation happens across the border. Canada is the number four source country of perpetrators coming to the Philippines or exploiting from Canada to the Philippines.
I'm just wondering if we could get a picture of what's going on with that from your perspective.