Justice committee  Yes, there has to be notice given.

Justice committee  Yes, if he meets the various elements of this offence. If he sells 10,000 unstamped cigarettes, yes.

Justice committee  I don't believe it is, actually. If the cigarette is stamped, this offence would not apply. If the cigarette is stamped it means that the federal excise tax has been paid, but there are provincial taxes that have to apply as well. Theoretically, it would be possible for an officer or an employee of a cigarette company to sell stamped cigarettes, but in a manner as to avoid provincial sales tax, and so be able to sell cigarettes that are less than the going price.

Justice committee  Yes, it is, in part. The other issue was that there was a measure of discomfort in placing minimum penalties of imprisonment in the Excise Act. The Excise Act, as you know, is a revenue statute. While it's viewed as being okay to have minimum fines in a revenue statute, there was, as I say, some discomfort in having minimum terms of imprisonment there.

Justice committee  That is correct.

Justice committee  It may send the message, but unless there's a clear notice given—

Justice committee  Regarding the way the imposition of a minimum sentence is announced, the prosecutor must give notice. In fact, the requirement to give notice is contained in section 727 of the Criminal Code. This covers all cases involving minimum sentences. If a prosecutor intends to ask for a minimum sentence for an accused, the prosecutor must give notice.

Justice committee  No, actually, to tell you the truth, we did not consider “trade”. We did consider “brokering” but excluded that. We wanted to focus primarily on the actual movement. If an individual is trading without having it in their possession and if that individual is high enough up in the hierarchy of the organization, it is possible for that individual to ensure or to organize the trade of that product.

Justice committee  That's probably likely. Mind you, in the case of a criminal organization offence, there is also the offence of instructing. That may be a little easier to prove than the conspiracy offence. If you can put together sufficient evidence to demonstrate trade, that's very close to the kind of evidence you would need to demonstrate conspiracy.

Justice committee  That's correct. If an individual is going to trade 10,000 cigarettes for a car—at first, I would say it would be a very cheap car—but it's likely, then, that the individual would be in possession of the cigarettes. At one point, it seems to me that the individual is going to be in possession of that product, and if that's the case, then we do have possession for the purpose of sale.

Justice committee  Thank you, Ms. Boivin. We consulted people from Revenue Canada, from the Department of Finance, from the Department of Public Security and from the Department of Justice. Our consultations were with government bodies only. We also consulted with the RCMP. I will now talk about the overlap of the offence contained in the Excise Act of 2001 and the offence contained in Bill C-10.

Justice committee  Yes, we did consider the issue of possession. We had been asked to address the situation of trafficking. There is possession for the purpose of trafficking, but in our view, simple possession was not part of the description of what really constitutes trafficking, namely the movement of product from one place to another.

Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't really have a long statement. What I just want to say are a few words explaining the legislation. The bill proposes amendments to the Criminal Code in order to provide for a new offence of trafficking in contraband tobacco. The particular activities that are prohibited include the offer for sale, possession for the purpose of selling, as well as distributing and transporting of such tobacco.

Health committee  There are differences between federal and provincial privacy laws. My colleague from the department is a specialist in privacy law, if you would like him to address that question, Mr. Chairman.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Part of the answer is that under the CDSA, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the offence of seeking or obtaining an authorization.... It is a requirement for anyone who obtains a second prescription to declare to the physician any prescription obtained in the 30 days prior to the second attempt to obtain.