This is certainly a concern that is raised by the legislation. It's a little difficult to address it completely until we see the regulations, but I agree with you that a danger of such a bill is that with indiscriminate use it can result in a chilling effect on medical research, on diagnostic activity, and it can result in injustice. Unfortunately, these things have happened in the United States, where the effect of the Patriot Act has been an exodus of research on organisms that are on the special organism list in this legislation because many researchers see it as not worth the trouble and the danger of inadvertently being found in infraction. There is the case of a distinguished microbiologist, Dr. Butler, who ran afoul of one of the provisions of the Patriot Act, which he himself reported. The consequences were very severe in terms of imprisonment and loss of his medical licence and position at the university. Yes, there is a concern.
At the same time, if this legislation is done correctly, if a clarification is done that could be beneficial, I think that certainly for risk group 2, which is the immense majority of the micro-organisms being handled in diagnostic laboratories and in research, the evolution of the consultation seems to me to be moving in the right direction.
Risk group 4 is handled only at the international microbiology laboratory in Winnipeg, so the federal government can regulate itself to its heart's content, I would think.
Risk group 3 is perhaps where we'll have the most problems because several organisms in there are very dangerous. That's why they're there. They need to be regulated correctly. At the same time, the laboratories of level 3 are becoming more and more common for both research and diagnostic purposes. We need only to remember that over the past few years Canada has seen major outbreaks with level 3 organisms: the SARS epidemic in Toronto and Vancouver, and the introduction in North America, including Canada, of the West Nile virus. Both of these viruses are risk group 3.
Also, something that is not addressed specifically in the legislation but is being seen considerably in research is the use of viral vectors with genetic construction that could, in theory, cause cancer, and these are to be handled in level 3 laboratories. So what we have been seeing over the past several years is an increase in the number of level 3 laboratories in the country, which overall is a good thing because they do respond to a need, but they have to be operated properly in both senses of the word. You must not end this work that needs to be done for medical research and for public health, but at the same time we have to be sure no reckless work that could pose danger is being done.