Justice committee  I agree with Mr. Damphousse. Most of the cigarettes and tobacco products used by adolescents are legal. A range of measures and an overall strategy are needed to decrease tobacco use. Federal and provincial legislation needs to be strengthened and more effort needs to be made to

Justice committee  Our organization is involved in various education campaigns, smoking cessation programs. The federal government is to be commended for Bill C-32 with respect to flavours, and for introducing the new picture-based health warnings that have a toll-free quit line. These are very si

Justice committee  To build on that, the police and prosecutors have federally at least three options: charge under the Excise Act, under the Criminal Code offence as a summary conviction offence, or under the Criminal Code offence as an indictable offence. It's only under an indictable offence if

Justice committee  This is something the European Union just announced they were signing last week. It was under negotiation for several years. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is an international treaty. In the same way the Kyoto protocol applies to climate change, this applies to t

Justice committee  There's certainly some evidence that cigarette smoking by youth can be a gateway to other substances. You learn how to smoke cigarettes; you learn how to smoke other things. There have been repeated reports, for some years, that the distribution channels for people involved in t

Justice committee  Health Canada is doing some studies and their basic conclusion is that the health effects of smoking contraband are the same as smoking regular cigarettes. There are some particular cases where the manufacturing processes are different and inadequate, have special flaws, have all

Justice committee  Combatting contraband...?

Justice committee  I would say that because more than 90% of the source of contraband in Canada comes from the illegal factories we have to have a strategy for illegal factories. The best way to do that is to intercept the raw materials before they get to the reserve and get to the factories. If y

Justice committee  Based on reports from the RCMP and others, on Kahnawake near Montreal, there are about ten; there's one on Tyendinaga, near Belleville; and there are maybe a dozen or so on Six Nations near Brantford. Those are in Canada. On the U.S. side of Akwesasne, there were 10 a couple of y

Justice committee  There's still an opportunity to sign. It was approved in November 2012. Countries are now in the process of signing it. Canada was an active player in the negotiations. The Canadian delegation was satisfied with the content at the conclusion of negotiations. I know this is someth

Justice committee  There have been a number of studies, but the most recent one was about four years ago.

Justice committee  There's a 59% prevalence among on-reserve first nations individuals.

Justice committee  I see no impediment to the trade in tobacco for ceremonial use. In regard to the use of tobacco for traditional ceremonies or religious practices, keep in mind that modern cigarettes have nothing to do with traditional ceremonial aboriginal practices. In terms of the quantities i

Justice committee  Nicotine is highly addictive. The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded it's as addictive as heroin and cocaine. So it's essential that we prevent kids from starting.

Justice committee  Sure. I think possibly those figures from the CBSA just refer to fine-cut tobacco, they don't include cigarettes.