In different climates...say, around seven years ago when the tobacco farmers as a whole didn't feel so abandoned, that activity did not take place in the format it does today.
But right now, as you know, they've gone to the ministry of agriculture and asked for some sort of phase-in bio-program, because they're destitute. A lot of those farmers are in really, really dire straits right now. It's their opinion that big industry as a whole has abandoned them in order to acquire a lot of their product in Brazil and other such countries.
It was one of my suggestions a long time ago to the minister to allocate the amount of tobacco that's in a Canadian manufactured or sold-in-Canada product. I know they'll bring up world trade arguments, but I think we have an obligation to protect the Canadian tobacco farmers as well. I don't think we should abandon them.
Right now they're a bit more easy victims of prey from organized crime because they're destitute.