Thank you very much.
Obviously the broader spectrum of white collar crime would bring into play a lot greater tools than the issue before us today with regards to identify theft, identify fraud. I think one of the big issues, and Mr. MacRury mentioned it, is how we can take a more comprehensive collective approach, specifically with regards to issues like identify theft and identify fraud, but even broader, expanding that out to issues like mass marketing fraud, which is still a huge problem here in Canada today and internationally. That comes down to a collective effort, especially with regards to the collection of intelligence information, the analysis of that.
Actually, if we could do a good job at that, it should lead us on two spectrums. One, the more information intelligence we can gather collectively from across the country from all law enforcement agencies and bring that together into a national central hub where we can analyze it.... Because a lot of this activity that's taken place, whether it be identify theft, identity fraud, or mass marketing fraud, is taking place from outside of Canada. None of the victims are centred in any one particular area in Canada. The whole success of people involved in this type of activity is that they target a broad scope of victims across a broad geographic area, basically right across the country.
Individually, in a lot of jurisdictions, two or three small complaints with regards to identify theft, identify fraud, for example, may not mean a whole lot to local police jurisdictions if they're prioritizing their investigations. However, if we collect that all together nationally, that's where we start to identify and see a big picture. Getting that national picture helps us to identify the large organizations that are involved in this type of activity. The stats clearly indicate that if we have millions of victims here in Canada, law enforcement will not be able to investigate all those individual complaints. The best approach I think we can take is to collectively get as much information as we can, identify the emerging issues that are coming forward with regards to identify theft and identify fraud. If we can identify them as they're emerging, then we could do a much better job in terms of awareness, education, and prevention, which should be, for all of us collectively, our ultimate goal. At the same time, if we can identify the large organizations that are involved in this and impacting Canadians, that's where we can focus and prioritize our resources.