I'd be happy to do that.
Bill C-8 seeks to implement a cost-effective border enforcement regime that balances the interests of rights holders, importers and exporters, and individuals. A key component of the legislation is that when goods are detained at the border, they aren't determined as being counterfeit; they are only detained as suspect of being counterfeit or pirated. Only the court makes that final determination.
The amendment under discussion would alter this approach by making the rights holder's allegation stronger and by forcing an importer-exporter to go to court to disprove the allegation. Due to the complexity of international trade transactions, importers may have little incentive or ability to give timely notice of detention to the actual owner. If notified the actual owner may be able to establish that the goods are not infringing, while importers may lack information on the provenance or purposes of the goods. And the courts are well equipped.
A number of witnesses testified to the importance of not turning border guards into judge and jury on whether a good is counterfeit or not. The balance that we have in the bill is that if an allegation is made, the goods can be detained at the border. There is a sharing of information between the rights holders and the state. The state is accepting responsibility for dealing with the most grievous forms of counterfeit goods, either those where there is a criminal investigation or those cases where there could be health and safety risks, and then also supporting the information exchange with the rights holders. We're not turning the border agents essentially into judge and jury in a situation where they could be expropriating property from importers without having that go to court.
So that's effectively the balance in the legislation that we think could be disrupted by this amendment.