The end goal always with sanctions is, number one, to provide an appropriate response to those who have violated our laws. Global corruption is violating human rights laws with huge impact, so the first function is to deal sternly with those who create such violations of human rights.
Secondly, though, the sanctions are also there to deter, to the extent that deterrence is possible. As I say, we also have, I think, a moral obligation as a country. We are a relatively wealthy country. We do have the capacity to do more to try to stem global corruption and view it as very much a human rights issue, not just an economics issue. The greatest sufferers of this global corruption are of course the poorest countries, and the first part of my paper and my book concentrates on that aspect. I think we have a moral obligation to do more.
I'm not sure if you've heard testimony yet from the RCMP who are responsible in this area. They did nothing and they had zero resources put into international apprehension and investigation until they were embarrassed into doing something. In 2007 they were embarrassed into creating two units of seven officers each, one in Ottawa and one in Calgary. Then just less than a year ago, in January, the commissioner, either before your committee or another committee, was honest in saying he had had to drag most of those people out of the ordinary bribery cases, and the only ones they're really red-flagging right now are the terrorist-financed cases.
I hope that as a committee you're cross-examining our officials. I'm not blaming the RCMP. They're not getting funding from the federal government, extra money to pursue that. I'm throwing out some pretty big accusations. I'm not wrong on the seven and seven and what the commissioner said in January of this year, but the problem is—and I'll have to be judicious and not say it's a joke—that we're really not playing our part. As Gretta says, we should be playing a leading role, and we're playing very much a back seat role in terms of investigating matters of this sort.