Information & Ethics committee  Yes, in my opening remarks, as well as in my partner's opening remarks, we talked a lot about cybercrime that takes place now because of the advance in technology. The phishing scam is still very much a concern, obviously, where people receive e-mails soliciting personal inform

Information & Ethics committee  It's considered a fraud, and we would investigate it as a fraud-type investigation. Obviously, we'd investigate what the intent was behind it, the reason. It could be an illegal immigrant in Canada. It could be somebody wanting to engage in other criminal offences. We have to loo

Information & Ethics committee  It forms part of the course of the investigation if there is actually another person's identity that's being used fraudulently. Yes, we will advise the victim that they have been the victim of fraud, and that somebody else has tried to use their identity. We provide them with a

Information & Ethics committee  Actually, it plays quite an important role. As a matter of fact, one of the strategies against identity theft is currently being led by Treasury Board. They are in the process of developing the guideline on identity assurance. It's at the draft stage. As I mentioned in my openin

Information & Ethics committee  The buy-in is not the difficulty. Essentially, the difficulties and challenges that we face in regard to working with the private and public sectors and law enforcement are about the ability to share private information in certain instances, which are limited by privacy laws, obv

Information & Ethics committee  There's no way to get around the Privacy Act to get information—

Information & Ethics committee  To get it legally, obviously, if we're dealing with a particular investigation, we would have to go through the normal processes of obtaining court orders to obtain information that we may need for our investigation. Right now, there is certainly an appetite from the private and

Information & Ethics committee  No. That is correct.

Information & Ethics committee  It has had a positive impact. I'm going to give you some of the numbers that I have here. In 2012, there were 2,813 cases reported, out of which 1,024 resulted in related charges. I don't have the comparative from the previous year, but I know from experience that it resulted in

Information & Ethics committee  I do not know if I can answer your question precisely. Essentially, we continue to identify cases of identity theft. The number of cases is actually going down, but the amount of information involved is increasing.

Information & Ethics committee  In order to check that information, I would have to compare my notes with my partners at the Competition Bureau. I don't know. I'm saying that maybe I should—

Information & Ethics committee  That would be a fair statement. We would likely report to the Competition Bureau what is relevant to the Competition Bureau.

Information & Ethics committee  As I stated during my opening remarks, obviously the Government of Canada has recognized the growing problem with identity theft, and some new laws have been implemented to address it. Any new tools or new legislation that may be put in place to improve the tools that are availab

Information & Ethics committee  Madam Chair, this might be a long-winded answer, because there are a number of initiatives that we undertake. I can list some of them. If I go over the time limit, you can advise me accordingly. The RCMP is committed to Canadian safety and security, obviously. We have a number o

Information & Ethics committee  The strategy was just implemented last year, and we are working with private and public sector partners right now to implement these.