Thank you.
When our group saw the recommendations from this report, we were actually quite appreciative, because I think they essentially reflected what we had asked for in terms of supporting a hearing. The response, I believe, from the ministry about the hearing was that they didn't feel it was appropriate to have a hearing because they didn't want to solicit views from the public on how to protect themselves—which I thought was somewhat silly, because where the telcos have gotten to now is based on a recommendation we made back in 2020. However, because they have dragged their heels or have not listened to us, more victims have accumulated in that time.
The second thing is that they don't understand that a hearing is not just to, let's say, solicit recommendations or things like that. Many of these victims do not feel heard. You may recall that you asked me back in 2020 how Rogers had responded to my fraud case. They offered me $100. Their customer service representative gave away my information, which took away all of my data. The scammer threatened to destroy my life, to destroy my career, unless I paid $25,000. That's what they asked from me, and Rogers wanted to give me $100 for that. That was the apology.
Other folks who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars are taking them to court instead. They're not co-operating. It takes these criminal investigations to reveal the kind of decay that's within the practices of the telco. That's why we continue to believe there needs to be a hearing to give that transparency in terms of the numbers. What are the practices? What are the ways and different patterns in how victimization occurs?
The third thing is that we want to codify it. The FCC also believes there is no consistency and durability in these practices. They can choose to not do this or just to say that it was a slip-up. The fourth thing is that we need that enforcement there, which we believe the Australian example shows is critical to ensuring there is compliance and things like that.
Those are the three or four things we stick to, and I believe the committee was a part of this the last time.