Good morning, and thank you for coming and informing us on the current situation with regard to piracy and intellectual property infringement.
I'm going to address Mr. Becker from the Department of Justice first, with a question to follow through on my good friend Mr. Cullen's statements. It's a question with regard to an indictment, that since about the year 2000 we've been seeing an incremental increase--and I wouldn't say it's an incremental increase, I think it's really an explosion--of infringements in those two areas I mentioned.
I guess my questions are going to be based on the fact that we have Canada looking at us right now, and the average citizen wondering what's going on and whether we have enough resources in government. The first thing the man or woman on the street might ask the Department of Justice is how many lawyers we have on staff, approximately, with the Department of Justice, and since the problem has been going on for at least five or more years, would not the group or some of that group of lawyers and experts we have in the Department of Justice have been working on legislation that they think the minister or the minister's staff might want to look at, with a view to beginning to stem this growing tide, which actually endangers not only our desks but the people who use things such as batteries, the people who consume pharmaceuticals, the people who feed food to their pets and to their families? Has the department drafted legislation, etc.?
Before I ask too many more questions, I would like you, and anyone else who might feel disposed, to respond to that question.