I would like to echo the comments of Mr. Hill on behalf of all of the members, entities and businesses that serve on our association's ethics and privacy committee.
Consider, for example, Reader's Digest which has been publishing in Canada for at least 70 years. Our company wants and must adapt to new technologies such as the Internet, the Web, and so forth. It is very important to Reader's Digest and to other business members of the association that their legitimate businesses activities not be confused with those of businesses that send out electronic business messages without consent. That is the first reason why we support this bill.
Secondly, we support the bill because it calls for a very reasonable and balanced approach to be taken. The proposed section 13 stipulates that the burden of proving that consent has been obtained, pursuant to sections 6, 7 and so on, falls to businesses. However, the bill is drafted fairly and allows businesses enough flexibility to decide on the required approach to securing consent.
Thirdly, the bill is consistent with many other laws in place in countries around the world. For instance, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have had legislation that adopts a similar approach in place for several years. For Canadian businesses that operate on an international scale, it is important to have a more or less harmonized approach. However, Canada must retain its reputation of having very solid legislation. This is not considered a lightweight piece of legislation.