Citizenship and Immigration committee  An arranged marriage can be legitimate. The tools we use to distinguish between an arranged marriage, a legitimate marriage in general, and a marriage of convenience include the following techniques. If I may, I will switch to English. We interview the applicants, interview them together, interview them individually, and corroborate details of their marital life to make sure that they coincide.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think I wouldn't want to use this forum to generate what might turn into diplomatic problems with other countries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As for the CBSA, the CBSA is aware of the existence of forced marriages. We've produced an intelligence brief on forced marriages and it has been provided to our stakeholders within the CBSA and within CIC, such as visa officers who field the initial applications from couples abroad.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  An arranged marriage is not the same thing as a marriage of convenience. An arranged marriage can very well be a part of the culture in some foreign countries and be absolutely acceptable.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under Canada's immigration laws, the CBSA has various enforcement options to pursue suspected cases of fraud, notably marriage of convenience cases. That can include the removal of the individual from Canada if that person misrepresented themselves or did not comply with the sponsorship conditions.

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  That is a good question, thank you. I will speak in my position as the director general of enforcement for the CBSA. In my job, I'm responsible for intelligence, criminal investigations, and inland enforcement. We work together in a number of ways. One of those ways is to assess where the risk is highest.

Justice committee  Yes. The CBSA is responsible for enforcement at the ports of entry and the RCMP is responsible for enforcement between ports of entry. We see a situation where seizures being made by the RCMP between ports of entry are declining, but that's being matched by an increase in seizures at ports of entry.

Justice committee  As I mentioned, we're not seeking additional resources for the implementation of this act.

Justice committee  The Canada Border Services Agency is not requesting additional resources to implement this legislation. This will become part of our regular duties. We've had a look at the potential volumes and we've assessed that we can absorb it within existing resources.

Justice committee  Yes. If we compare January to October 2013 to the same period in 2012, the total number of seizures is up 5%. The number of cigarettes seized is up 46%. The volume of cigars seized is up 16%. The volume of fine-cut tobacco is up 66%, and other types of tobacco products are up 6%.

Justice committee  With respect to contraband cigarettes that we seize, the first and second countries that those cigarettes originate from are China and South Korea. The U.S. is only third. For the most part, those cigarettes are coming into Canada in the postal and courier mode in large numbers of shipments, but in relatively small volumes.

Justice committee  Yes, this will expand and increase the number of contacts that we have with local police and jurisdictions. We've made a total of 1,996 seizures so far this year of tobacco that would meet the definition of contraband tobacco under this act. However, a lot of those seizures are very small in volume and probably would not be pursued as a criminal charge.

Justice committee  If the Canadian port of entry is on the U.S. side in Massena, then everyone seeking to enter Canada through that passageway is going to have to be cleared at that point. At the moment, vehicles can enter the Akwesasne reserve and a lot of illicit activity is undertaken on the reserve—

Justice committee  —before the CBSA border point. In our opinion, this will tighten up the inspection of goods, vehicles, and people before they enter Canada.