Saying the charter statement protects.... I completely agree with Mr. Dubé. Many of these new areas are being litigated. The Supreme Court has confirmed that, for instance, certain cellphone conversations, electronic conversations, do have privacy protection under the charter.
As we go into new territory, we're going to be inviting legal challenges by not being very clear that we are not including in this information that has been published or broadcast only to a selected audience, or information that has been purchased illegally.
There can be no harm in having a confirmatory statement for clarity that would meet what Canadians expect. Frankly, having had the testimony from the Privacy Commissioner, Canadian Bar Association, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, they are concerned about the very same points raised by the NDP and Green Party.
I would love to see this section amended to better protect the privacy of Canadians, and ensure that publicly available information as a broad statement doesn't pick up things that we really don't believe should be publicly available information, either obtained illegally or only available to a specific, selected, particular audience.