Justice committee  Mr. Nicholson, I'm happy to answer. With respect to the use of the marijuana, there is still an exchange component to it for other drugs. There has historically also been, in certain parts of the country, an exchange for firearms in the United States. The firearms are cheaper there and the marijuana is more expensive, and so it is being used as a currency in that respect.

Justice committee  I'm not.

Justice committee  As you indicated, approximately $135 million is the total amount for that branch. It includes the three portions. For the national security portion, this year we will have spent in excess of $4.3 million with respect to those matters. They include both terrorism prosecutions and prosecutions under such acts as the Security of Information Act.

Justice committee  Yes, we have. With respect to the number of accused who have been charged with terrorism-related offences since the act came into place in December 2001, we've had 52 accused, 20 have been convicted, one has been acquitted, and we've had stays or withdrawals of eight, some of which have resulted then in peace bonds being imposed.

Justice committee  I am the deputy director.

Justice committee  Let me add that none of the monies that are sought here are anticipated to be spent on those sorts of prosecutions. In estimating what the requirement was, we focused on our highest complexity cases, because they generally have all of the elements, such as wiretap, production orders, tracking orders, and on a certain percentage of our medium complexity cases.

Justice committee  We use a reasonable prospect of conviction and that the prosecution serves the public interest. There are variations, slight variations, between jurisdictions, but all of the prosecuting authorities across the country do the two-step model: is there enough admissible evidence to meet a threshold, and would a conviction be in the public interest?

Justice committee  Yes, and we have not encountered in any jurisdiction an issue with respect to any nuance between—and really they are nuances—between the prosecution tests. In fact, we have arrangements with all of the provinces—we call them major or minor—whereby whoever has the major case will do the case and the minor charges they'll do as well, as the agent for the other jurisdiction, and vice versa.

Justice committee  We measure it by determining whether the witnesses are more comfortable and whether they are able to deliver their evidence. The feedback we have received has been consistently positive with respect to it. In some areas, for example, you may have a situation where you're in a small community and virtually everyone in that community for one reason or another is on the side of the accused.

Justice committee  We also have a group of the most senior litigators, senior general counsel, across the country. They are expected to be prepared to assist in a case in another jurisdiction either through providing advice, doing part of the case, or doing a whole case. Doing that ensures cross-pollination among our folks.

Justice committee  I will do it.

Justice committee  I'll just add very quickly that with respect to cost recovery, as Mr. Saunders said, it's on the regulatory side. We don't recover from the police. On the regulatory side, as well as in all our prosecutions, we apply our standards. With reasonable prospect of conviction, it is in the best-served interest of the community to go ahead, and we have not had a situation where money has determined any of those decisions.

Justice committee  We have one case right now.

Justice committee  It's my side of the house, and we do have one case right now where the judge has indicated concern that may amount to not proceeding. It's the only one that I'm aware of, however.

Justice committee  I don't recall. I'd have to provide that to you.