Thank you very much for your very well-documented bits of information. It answered a lot of the questions I wanted to ask. You've answered the questions on blogging, the use of the Internet, art, cartooning, and that sort of thing.
I want to preface my question with the statement that as one of the members from British Columbia who pushed very hard to get the games to Vancouver and British Columbia and who supports the games extremely well, I have had small businesses in my riding that have been concerned about one specific piece, which is the number of items you have added to the wordmark or trademark pieces. Some of them are words like “game city”. While Vancouver and Whistler are game cities, and someone may want to refer to it as such in anything they put forward, it's a pretty broad use of the words “game city”.
Lots of people are concerned not so much about the pieces you've added that come about in the bill, the specific words and phrases, but the fact that you have now changed some of the legislation. In the past, one would have to ensure that people had created irreparable harm according to the courts before you could accuse them of infringement or before you could seize their property or stop them from doing this. Lots of small businesses are concerned that by taking this away, you have taken away any redress or address they may have with the courts if they feel they have been wrongly charged.
I understand. I know the people at VANOC, and I know they have said they would make sure they're very fair in using this piece of legislation. But I think there is a concern.
If small businesspersons have to go to court in order to recoup whatever assets have been seized and they don't have that kind of money, then they've lost a ton of money. It may be a small business where somebody is selling hot dogs or t-shirts or it may be a pizza parlour calling itself the City Sky Pizza Parlour, or Game City Pizza, or whatever. There's a real concern from small businesses that this could cause a problem. Could you respond to that for me please?