Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Mr. Glover, I know that you are not in an easy position. You have to defend a very controversial position. You have to defend the minister's position. People still fail to understand.
If I am not mistaken, the minister said that she wanted to fight contraband tobacco. You said in your opening remarks that warnings on packaging are one tool in the strategy and not the only tool. By the same token, the fight against contraband tobacco is one tool but not the only tool.
When you want to come to grips with a problem as major as tobacco addiction, you have to use all the means at your disposal, from warnings to the fight against contraband. I have real trouble believing that such a huge machine as the Government of Canada is incapable of walking and chewing gum in the same time. That doesn't even occur to me.
Mr. Dosanjh asked the question...and I will take it even further. We can see that, since November 19, the only interest groups that you have met with are those from the tobacco industry. They wanted to meet with you to discuss advertising. They include Small Guys Tobacco Group, Scandinavian Tobacco Group, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco.
It is astonishing to see that the most recent stakeholders you have met with come from the tobacco industry and now, suddenly, you are cancelling—or at least postponing, as they are saying over at the department—the placement of new warnings on cigarette packaging.
At the very start of your presentation, you told us that Canada is a world leader in warning messages. But, as Mr. Strang mentioned—and I thank him for doing so—we are now ranked 15th out of 18 countries in warnings on packaging.
How can you come to the committee and tell us that Canada is still a world leader?