I'm the manager of the drug section at the Ottawa Police Service. I wanted to tell you that because we're mandated with the enforcement of controlled drugs. We're also mandated to investigate laboratories within the city of Ottawa. We work in conjunction with other police services, including the RCMP and the OPP.
As we do this enforcement, we regularly run into children who are involved in the trafficking of drugs. They're involved in supporting criminal groups who are involved in the trafficking of drugs. We also regularly deal with children who are using drugs within the city of Ottawa.
This legislation addresses three important points. The first one is the firearms—weapons. We deal with the seizure of firearms on a regular basis as we execute search warrants within the city. On Friday we executed a search warrant within the old city of Orleans, and as is now a common practice of the drug unit, we found readily available firearms within the residence. These firearms were a few feet away from the suspects.
As well, the drug dealers and the organized crime groups are involved in recruiting young children. They have been doing that for a long time, but more now than ever. We deal with gangs, and the gangs are involved with using the services of persons from the age of 12 to 17 years old to traffic their drugs on the street and within schools. There are particular groups that focus on using children, because they realize that it's easy to do.