Thank you for your questions, honourable member, I think they go to the heart of why I'm supporting this bill. We do see provisions, unusually--this is a growing trend in Canadian law--for compensation to the victim and not just to the crown.
The issue of damages in the work we do, which is not criminal work, as the RCMP have explained, does vary widely and depends on the harm. Some people may have misuse of their personal information, but it's very hard for them to prove what harm they suffered, even emotional harm in some cases. It's a very broad range. Usually, in our experience, in that case the organization that mishandled the personal information--remember we are dealing with privacy matters, not with criminal issues--will restitute the amount of the loss and usually a bit more in terms of a moral compensation to the victim once this is proved by our investigation process.
The issue you raised that all Canadians indirectly bear the costs of credit card fraud is one I'm very happy to see you raise. I have spoken about this very much in the past few years. I thought that I'd just add to your deliberations today.
I mentioned one of the world's greatest computer fraud artists who has just been convicted. He was involved in the data theft at TJX, which my office investigated with the Alberta commissioner's office two years ago. We were the first body in the world to make our investigations known. He has been charged in the United States with a 19-count indictment that includes conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges under an agreement with the prosecutors. This was in late August. He'll face a maximum of 25 years in prison and will forfeit more than $2.8 million in cash. Unlike in some of the other examples that Inspector Petryshyn gave us, it seems that he had quite a few assets that could be liquidated in order to restitute his victims.