Evidence of meeting #34 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was e-mail.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Yves Morency  Vice-President, Government Relations, Mouvement des caisses Desjardins
Frank Zinatelli  Vice-President, Legal Services and Associate General Counsel, Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.
Peter Goldthorpe  General Director, Marketplace Regulations Issues, Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.
Joanne De Laurentiis  President and Chief Executive Officer, Investment Funds Institute of Canada
Paul Vaillancourt  Independant Financial Advisor, Investment Funds Institute of Canada
Bernard Brun  Senior Counsel, Commerce and Technology, Desjardins Sécurité financière, Mouvement des caisses Desjardins
David Fewer  Acting Director, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
Tamra Thomson  Director, Legislation and Law Reform, Canadian Bar Association
David Fraser  Chair, Privacy and Access Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
Kim Alexander-Cook  Vice-Chair, Marketing Practices Committee, Competition Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
John Lawford  Counsel, Public Interest Advocacy Centre

6:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Fraser.

Mr. Dryden, go ahead.

6:20 p.m.

Liberal

Ken Dryden Liberal York Centre, ON

I'm not quite sure. I understand your example about the change of address. I would suggest that it would represent one millionth of the problem, and I would certainly not like to see that being used as an opportunity to drive through the other million e-mails that would come my way.

Regarding the second example, again it may well be the case that I find an e-mail that I received but had not invited interesting. But that's still not the issue to me. It's accidental and something I haven't invited, and in the great, great majority of instances, it is not something I would find interesting and worthy.

Mr. Alexander-Cook drew a distinction several times between “unwanted” and “unsolicited”, and I don't quite know what the difference is. To me, if it is unsolicited it is unwanted.

6:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

We'll finish with Mr. Alexander-Cook.

6:25 p.m.

Vice-Chair, Marketing Practices Committee, Competition Law Section, Canadian Bar Association

Kim Alexander-Cook

I won't add to what Mr. Fraser said; I certainly agree with his comments. I would just turn it the other way to say that we would agree that the fact it was solicited may not mean it was wanted in the end, because you're not quite sure what is going to come from any particular company in the next 18 months. It may be that for certain people, anything they have not specifically asked for is unwanted, but it's not clear that's the case for many people, including Mr. Fraser in some respects.

6:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you very much, Mr. Dryden.

Thank you, Mr. Alexander-Cook and Mr. Fraser.

Before we adjourn our meeting, I want members of the committee to know that this afternoon the procedure and House affairs committee tabled their report to the House, and that report has been or will be concurred in this afternoon. Therefore, this committee ceases to exist at 6:30.

By Wednesday, you will receive a notice of meeting so that this committee may be reconstituted. We need to elect a new chair, which will obviously be at the discretion of the committee members, but I'd ask that you also keep your calendars free for that 3:30 to 5:30 time slot on Wednesday, because the clerk has been asked to still call the witnesses for Wednesday's meetings. Keep that time blocked off even though the notice of meeting you will receive is simply for the election of a chair.

Keep that timeframe blocked off so that, hopefully, we can elect a chair, committee members willing, and hopefully, committee members willing, start the meeting with more witnesses on Bill C-27.

Without further ado, this meeting is adjourned.