I'd like to address that.
Clause 19, which is amending subsection 110(3) of the act, is replaced by the following. It says:
A candidate who receives a copy of the preliminary lists of electors under section 94 or 104.1 or a copy of revised lists of electors or the official lists of electors under subsection 107(3), may use the lists for communicating with his or her electors during an election period, including using them for soliciting contributions and campaigning.
I'm assuming, because I don't have the actual Elections Act as it now exists before me, that subsections 110(1) and 110(2) also include the framework of how that personal information can be used. It's very clear how it can be used, and for what purposes, and it's only for those purposes. It also makes it very clear that it's during an election period.
You may have the actual legislation before you and be able to tell me that, no, subsection 110(1) and subsection 110(2) don't address this issue at all, in which case we've only got subsection 110(3). Regarding your arguments about the charter issue, you still have not responded on the provincial legislation. When I see the federal legislation, it actually stipulates under what condition any information on the preliminary lists or the lists of electors that are given to candidates may be used, when they may be used, for what period of time they can be used, and for what purposes they may be used.
I'm still having difficulty understanding why the inclusion of the date of birth would be so problematic and possibly anti-charter at the federal level, and yet this is not a problem in Quebec. You have seven million Quebeckers of whom probably four million and some are electors, and for the last probably 25 years, our date of birth has been on the electoral list, which is distributed to hundreds of candidates in Quebec. It's never caused a problem, and no one has ever challenged it under the charter.