Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Kessel and your colleagues, for being here this morning. This is very important legislation for Canada to pass. I appreciate your assistance in helping with the drafting of the bill, helping to appear before Senate and parliamentary committees, and helping to move it along.
I believe that all the political parties, at least at this stage, are in agreement that this is something that needs to be done soon.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak to the Transparency International Canada conference, and they expressed wide support for this legislation. There were people in the room representing stakeholders in government, academia, NGOs, businesses, law firms, accounting firms, and other kinds of consulting firms, and they all agreed that this was valuable legislation that should pass very quickly.
Mr. Kessel, in your opening remarks you mentioned the 2008 OECD working group on bribery report. It outlined some recommendations for Canada. Would it be fair to say that Bill S-14 is a response to the OECD report? Can you specifically tell us how the legislation addresses each of those recommendations? As a signatory to a number of anti-corruption conventions, including the OECD convention, does this help Canada live up to its commitment under those conventions?
Could you address those questions for us?