Good afternoon, Mr. Dandurand. I'm very pleased to see you here today.
I am very pleased that special attention is being given to witness protection. I myself am involved in an organization called Info-Crime Québec which essentially seeks to protect the identity of people who report crime through a completely confidential phone line. In fact, it is volunteers and not police officers who take care of this phone line. In the past few years, we have seen an increase in the number of crimes reported. I don't like the connotation of the word "informant" but I often refer to "crime reporting".
My first question will be in this vein. Do you believe that a totally independent program would help increase the number of witnesses so as to support police investigations?