The meeting on 30 October, 2012 involved the following witnesses: Wayne J. Edwards, Chair and Vice-President (Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network); Vladimir Gagachev, Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Electrical Sector (Eaton Yale Company); Terry Hunter, Manager, Anti-Counterfeiting and Intellectual Property Enforcement (Canadian Standards Association); and John McDougall, President (National Research Council Canada). Mr. Edwards, Mr. Gagachev and Mr. Hunter emphasized the urgent need to fight the rising counterfeiting crimes in Canada. Among the major recommendations they mentioned included adopting a system where IP rights holders may record their rights with the Canadian Border Services (CBS) so that counterfeited products may be identified, empowering the CBS with an authority which enable them to target, detain, seize and destroy counterfeit goods and educating the young. Mr. McDougall reiterated on the role of the NRC, which has become less scientist-driven with more industrial financial involvement. As such, the NRC foresees more industrial type publication in the future. Mr. McDougall was also requested to provide some form of document which further elaborates the new direction for the NRC.

On November 1^st, the committee heard testimony from the following witnesses: Rami Abielmona, Vice-President, Research and Engineering, Larus Technologies Corporation; Gordon A. Davies, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Open Text Corporation; Karna Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Information Technology Association of Canada; and Martin Lavoie, Director of Policy, Manufacturing Competitiveness and Innovation, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. The Minutes can be found here.

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On 25 October, the witnesses included representatives from two organizations and two individuals:  Victoria Lennox, Chief Executive Officer, and Dave Waters, Advisor, both for Startup Canada; Kevin Spreekmeester (KS), Vice-President Global Marketing for Canada Goose Inc ; Douglas Barber, Distinguished Professor-in-Residence, McMaster University; and Daniel S.Drapeau, Litigor, Advisor & Trade-Mark Agent, DrapeauLex Inc. As the meeting was delayed by forty five minutes, the witnesses rushed through their presentations while highlighting issues regarding counterfeit products and the weak performance of Canadian businesses in commercializing value-added products. Lennox, Waters and Barber agreed that this is largely due to poor communication contacts between entrepreneurs and the authorities involved such as the government and universities. Mr. Barber commented on how the “cultural commercialization” of Canadians is much more conservative compared to the American markets where there exists a “synergy” of communications between the entrepreneurs, students, government and universities thereby enabling strong support within the intellectual property regime of the U.S.A. Daniel Drapeau emphasized the need to improve the current trademark regulations in Canada to combat counterfeiting. These include the addition of criminal disposition, trademark registrations and statutory damages. Questions and answers between the witnesses and the committee members were short. At 11.45am, the committee voted to quickly end the meeting for the public.

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Does the hon. member not think this law should differentiate people who accidentally break the digital lock at home or download material without any intention to resell or in any profit from it, in other words, the kinds of things people are used to doing today? Does he not think an individual violation of copyright law should be differentiated from a commercial violation of copyright law? At this point, individuals are subject to the same penalties of up to $20,000 maximum as commercial attempts to circumvent copyright law.

Brian Storseth: Madam Speaker, I am glad that the hon. member recognizes how seriously our government takes copyright legislation and the modernization of it. She is a very thoughtful person, who puts forward very real amendments, unlike some of my colleagues opposite.

I am of the understanding through my reading of the legislation that this does differentiate people who are recording something at home, people who do not necessarily intend to break a digital lock. The minister has done an excellent job in balancing the needs of consumers while modernizing our copyright legislation so that artists, creators and photographers can have more modern standards in keeping with those of other countries.

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