Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, thank you for your speech on this. I have a few more legal points.

I think it’s actually a good thing that the phrase “in association with” is used in a major federal statute. Senator Woo provided an example of that from the Criminal Code, and you provided a few more. It’s also a good thing there is already federal case law, including the Supreme Court of Canada — as Senator Woo himself referenced — interpreting that phrase, “in association with.” There are likely other federal statutes other than the Criminal Code which probably also use the phrase “in association with.”

So using language which is contained in other statutes and has been well interpreted by courts is a positive thing for federal legislation.

As well, from Senator Woo’s reference, it sounds like the Supreme Court of Canada did not rule the phrase “in association with” to be overbroad in that Criminal Code case that he referenced.

Given all of that, wouldn’t you agree that it lends credence to the same phrase, “in association with” and would not be found to be overbroad for those reasons as well?