Thank you, Chair.
I'm glad we're having this discussion. I think this is a very important concern, and I'm glad that the parliamentary secretary has committed to bringing us more specific information on this.
He spoke about the need for ministers to make judgment calls, and that may well be true. But I think that in an area like this we have to understand on what basis that judgment is being exercised, and what are the guidelines in place that the minister would avail herself of to make that kind of decision. That's why I think it's very important that we understand what guidelines have been developed by the department to interpret this particular clause of Bill C-10.
I still hope that if this bill is before the Senate, the Senate might pay some attention to this particular clause and send a reworking of it back to the House of Commons to be looked at again, because I do have very serious concerns about how easily we can go down the road of censorship.
I hasten to say that even Mr. Abbott's example of a film or a story told about the odious crimes of Paul Bernardo may not mean that a film or video presentation about that story is in itself odious and repugnant. What Mr. Bernardo did certainly was repugnant, and as a society maybe it's important that we understand what happened there, and that it may be a particular role for creative people to tell that story. But if we're going to decide before that story is told that it's odious and repugnant, I do have some concerns.
So I think it's very important that we see what guidelines are in place, what the changes have been, and to act responsibly as the committee that's responsible for Canadian Heritage and the creative process in this regard, so that we understand completely what's happened here.