Mr. Chair, with great respect, I don't think anybody here is debating the importance of confidentiality in a medical context. My wife's a physician. There are many physicians in my family. I know it well. I know the importance of it well. I think all members do, and all members understand the critical importance and exactly what Mr. Virani said about why.
There are also exceptions in law which are designed to protect the most vulnerable, so that if a child is being abused, that child can be protected. The fundamental concern for justice for the innocent supersedes that principle of confidentiality. It's not to deny its importance; it's to recognize the need for those exceptions that already exist in law.
It's hard for me to understand why it would be suggested in this case—where we have instances of people's vital organs being taken from them while they're alive, simply because of their political convictions, or in other cases being exploited because of their poverty—that we would somehow not automatically equate that with the other forms of abuse where we already have these exceptions in law. It's not something new. It's simply an extension, from my perspective, of a very clear-cut moral principle.
I have a few other points. One is that adding this section was an amendment that was specifically requested by the Senate and supported by the Senate. I think it was very important. All of the previous versions of the bill—from Irwin Cotler and, I believe, from Mr. Wrzesnewskyj as well—had a reporting mechanism in them. If you want to get this done, if you want to protect people, then there has to be an effective reporting mechanism that creates a possibility of prosecution. There is no sense in which facilitating the prosecution of heinous criminals like child abusers undermines the wider principle of physician-patient confidentiality.
I really hope we don't pass this amendment because—well, I won't repeat myself. That's enough. Thank you.