As committee members know, prior to this meeting, numerous government amendments were distributed to the committee. I wanted to address them up front, and then we can go through them amendment by amendment. Mr. Rajotte mentioned in his remarks last week that the government amendments are considered friendly and within the scope of the legislation.
Mr. Rajotte's bill, Bill C-299, seeks to address the problem of identity theft in our country. The intention of the bill is certainly admirable. The government, however, could not support the bill as it was originally drafted, for a number of reasons. Reasons were also identified by some opposition members during debate on its second reading.
The amendments the government is moving today will focus the bill on clauses dealing only with the Criminal Code. That's further to the last committee meeting also, when we heard from most members on a desire to narrow the scope of the bill and also to further modify the language. There were some questions raised about the language in the bill.
Specifically, the amendments we're moving seek to define identification information to mean information about any person, living or dead, that is capable of being used, whether alone or in conjunction with other information, to identify that person. The amended definition will move away from personal information as defined, which is captured under PIPEDA and was identified as problematic by members of this committee.
The amendments we're moving also seek to clarify the scope of the proposed offences. As drafted originally, the offences were very broad and only captured personal information obtained through deception from a third person. The original drafting also did not specify that the information was obtained or distributed with criminal intent.
The government amendments further specify identification information obtained, sold, or otherwise disclosed from any person by a false pretense, or by fraud or with intent to commit fraud, or personation offences under sections 380 or 403 of the Criminal Code. It's narrowing the scope of the bill.
The other amendments seek to delete the clauses dealing with the Competition Act and the Canada Evidence Act. Members will see, when we come up to them, that it's simply deleting those provisions of the bill that deal with the Competition Act and the Canada Evidence Act, leaving only those provisions dealing with the Criminal Code.
Mr. Rajotte has suggested that the elements of the bill dealing with the Competition Act and PIPEDA could be referred to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, which is presently conducting a legislative review of the PIPEDA legislation and has a mandate and expertise to better consider these matters. That's a matter for the committee. The government is currently considering the submissions it received on the broader issue of identity theft and will respond accordingly.
Those are my opening remarks. I think as you see the amendments, their intent will be clarified, but basically it's a series of amendments to narrow the bill and better define what's left in the provisions related to the Criminal Code.