Thank you, Chair.
We're moving to the area, and I know there's another grouping of amendments dealing with this issue of what to do about publicly available information. What we have on this in the language of the bill is found at page 55, which is that “publicly available information means information that has been published or broadcast for public consumption, is accessible to the public on the global information infrastructure or otherwise or is available to the public on request, by subscription or by purchase”.
I think members will remember quite clearly that we had testimony from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Bar Association Jean-Pierre Plouffe, commissioner for Communications Security Establishment, as well as Daniel Therrien as Privacy Commissioner, that the definition in the act is overly broad and doesn't attend to the concerns of information that might be publicly available and thus meet the definition, but is only publicly available because it was obtained illegally or was otherwise purchased in ways that violate the privacy of Canadians.
My amendment attempts, as you can see, by amending it to say with the preventative clause, “It does not include information that has been published or broadcast only to a selected audience or information that has been purchased illegally”.
I know there are a number of similar amendments coming from both Liberals and the NDP, but I don't think they're exactly the same, so it will be up to this committee to decide whether the language I'm presenting covers things off adequately. I do think Mr. Dubé's amendment is also very strong, so it's really for the committee to find a way forward. As much as I know Pam Damoff's amendment tries to limit it to reasonable expectation of privacy, I don't think that's as strong, with all due respect. I don't think it covers off all the possible ways—and we're certainly much more aware of this than we used to be—that information about Canadians online can be mined. It's not really publicly available. There was no intention to make it publicly available or it was purchased in ways that allow it to be purchased or obtained illegally.
If you're not taking mine, I prefer Mr. Dubé's, but please take mine.
Thank you.