Industry committee  It's a start, but more needs to be done. More teeth need to be implemented in the Trade-marks Act than suggested here in the bill, to allow perhaps, as a summation, the exchange of information between the CBSA agents and property rights holders like ourselves. I'll mention, as Mr.

Industry committee  I would say that in my experience of dealing with our law enforcement officials at the front lines, those who are empowered to take action have an effect. We've seen instances, coming out of either national training sessions or online sessions, in which we'll be contacted by on-the-street officers informing us that a suspected counterfeit product is being offered in either a smaller store or through other means.

Industry committee  I'll start by saying that from our perspective the detainment and seizure and destruction of the goods exemplified in that model seem to work for us as a brand owner. I think it effectively puts the right amount of resources, whether it's invested by us in conjunction with the CBSA agents and the communication components, into action and actually takes the product off the street.

Industry committee  Do you mean are there more counterfeits coming in?

Industry committee  I think we're probably on the same track as we were back in 2009-2010, at least at this early stage. I think it will continue to be magnified and to become of even greater concern. As a real-life example, I recently spoke to a small business operator who deals expressly in licensed-product goods.

Industry committee  That's correct. I think, sir, that this is going on currently in our economy and in our commerce supply chain here in Canada. I suspect, dealing with my other fellow brand owners with the NHL and the other major leagues such as NFL and MLB, that they all have the same sort of approach to the business with bona fide retailers connected with bona fide licensing partners or the supply chain.

Industry committee  First of all, to answer your question about the market, if it said “Made in Canada”, that's one of the signs we look for, because those jerseys are made in Indonesia through our licensing partner. To clarify that, our on-ice, authentic jerseys that Team Canada will be wearing are made in Granby, Quebec, and only in Granby, Quebec.

Industry committee  I would think as a brand owner that we would participate in a fair and equitable amount of investment in the protection of that, but we'd like to see front-line officers given the authority and the power to seize and detain those goods. We'd then like to see a meaningful and cost-effective way of dealing with those goods without releasing them back into the chain of commerce, if you will, by returning the shipment and putting the onus back on the counterfeiter or importer to prove that those goods are actually legitimate.

Industry committee  Mr. Chairman, honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for inviting Hockey Canada to participate in the committee's study of Bill C-8. Hockey Canada is the country's national sport organization. Our association is responsible for the creation and implementation of hockey-specific programming for more than 650,000 young Canadians, from entry-level beginners through to high-performance athletes competing at world championships and such multi-nation games as the Paralympic and Olympic games.

Industry committee  I can try. Maybe I can be corrected by some of my colleagues about the legislation. They intercepted and detained the jerseys through the Canada Post act, I believe. They notified the intended recipient that they were holding the package because of suspicious circumstances. They were asked to present themselves to make a claim to the package and to explain why the jerseys should be released.

Industry committee  I would support those comments and say that the collaborative approach to educating Canadians would be a very good first step.

Industry committee  Absolutely. There's a mix of not only licensed product from sport brands like ours, the NHL, but we'll also see other counterfeit brands of other products, whether it's software or other components, sometimes in containers when the container is opened or inspected.

Industry committee  Just based on the numbers of jerseys that we detained and ultimately destroyed at the Vancouver mail facility—16,000 units—we probably would have lost in excess of a million dollars' worth of royalty revenue that just didn't come into our coffers.

Industry committee  We are, if those numbers are indeed accurate, which we are pretty confident they are.

Industry committee  We see primarily the flood coming through the mail system, and there is probably less inspection of mail parcels than there is of commercial packages in commercial containers. It was only when one or two officers observed that many packages of 10, 20, 30, or 40 jerseys were going to the same address with different names that it became suspicious.