Mr. Speaker, it is not good enough to be in good faith. We have to follow the law. The minister knew that the drug Cipro was protected under Canada's patent laws, yet he chose to ignore them.
He could have done one of three things. If it was an emergency, he could have declared an emergency and got the drugs that way. Second, he could have asked the patent commissioner for authorization to produce the drugs under a generic producer, but he failed to do so. Finally, he could have picked up the phone and phoned Bayer and said “Listen, we need the drugs. Could we infringe upon your patent protection?”
He did not do any of these things. Why did he choose to break the patent laws of Canada instead of obeying the law like he should have?