Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, further to Mr. Réal Ménard's question, to suggest that there wouldn't be an impact, to me, is to suggest that the bill does nothing. We wouldn't all be sitting here if this bill didn't do something. I would argue that it may not have been your intent, but this could have an impact on those types of investigations.
The bill establishes for journalists a new class privilege that does not exist now. The presumption now is that journalists are subject to the same treatment as all other Canadians, and there's a legal presumption that relevant evidence should be presented to the courts. That's the presumption, and I mentioned that in an earlier question. The assertion of journalistic privilege is an exception to that rule.
Whether it's the intention or not, your bill would supercede all other federal acts—that's stated explicitly in the bill—including Criminal Code provisions, as well as acts that could impact on terrorism and national security, as I mentioned. It would extend to journalists a privilege that is not accorded to any other Canadian and in fact throw out the balance that the courts as recently as this week have upheld, which says that there is an appropriate balance, that journalists can exert journalistic privilege but that has to be dealt with on and established on a case-by-case basis.
What we have with your bill is an overly broad definition of journalist that extends this privilege to journalists above and beyond all Canadians and really fundamentally shifts the balance that has been established. Again, I would put to you the question: is it not true that if this bill were to pass, there would be some cases that could proceed now that will not be able to proceed because of a lack of relevant evidence?
