The amendment seeks to limit the tools available to the police who are investigating offences under the Copyright Act. As a result, the RCMP would be unable to seek judicial authority to conduct a wiretap as part of a criminal investigation involving the production of, for example, thousands of infringing DVDs, Blu-rays, or CDs for commercial distribution.
As indicated in earlier testimony before the committee by the RCMP, organized crime groups are diverse, and investigations normally involve many forms of contraband. The amendment would also create a differential treatment regarding the tools available for law enforcement investigations of copyright and trademark counterfeiting crimes.
Ms. May listed a number of the high crimes in the Criminal Code that are found in those provisions around wiretapping. I haven't done a formal count, but I think it's in the range of 150 to 200. Many of the provisions, which are quite close to the criminal provisions being created through Bill C-8 for copyright and trademarks, are already included in the Criminal Code, for example, forgery, theft, fraud, uttering or making counterfeit money, and smuggling. So there is an analogous set of offences that are in the act.
The proposal in Bill C-8 is effectively to add the two new criminal offences. I'll be clear that no civil offences are being added into the Criminal Code.
With regard to the issue of safeguards, which was raised, there are no new safeguards added in Bill C-8 regarding wiretapping. The safeguards are actually quite comprehensive and are already spelled out in the Criminal Code. There's no narrowing or expanding of wiretap provisions as a result of Bill C-8. In the act, we've established new criminal offences for trademark violation and, on the criminal side, for copyright, and in both cases, we're simply providing the RCMP with a warrant and sufficient evidence, with all of the safeguards in the Criminal Code in place, so that with a judge's concurrence they can seek a wiretap. This is undertaken in extraordinary circumstances. The RCMP reports publicly on the number of wiretaps it seeks. You can find that on Public Safety's web page. That's done in a very small percentage of overall investigations. I think the numbers range over the last five years from about just over 100 to the low 90s.