Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will speak directly to the subamendment. I'm in support of the subamendment. However, before I go on, I have to share some of my observations, and I want to seek your guidance in the process.
I think we are going in circles. I wonder whether we can move fast enough to produce a workable, acceptable and balanced piece of legislation for the sake of public safety. My feeling is that right now we have opinions from only one side. We are talking about trying to get a balance. I know this is what we are supposed to do. We have a piece of legislation in front of us. We have different views. We have people who are in favour. Some people who are in a different group might say, no, this is going too far.
What I observe here is that even though our witnesses said they are not here to advocate for the passing of the legislation as is, actually they are, because they will be the users and consumers of this legislation if it passes. I can understand that from their perspective of what they should have, the more, the better in terms of authority, power and convenience. On the other hand, we have received lots of submissions from civil liberty groups and service providers, and they have a very different view. They have concerns. They have worries. They have also expressed some limitations of this bill if it is passed.
What we have here today, as we had last week, is that whenever we raise a question, we get almost a rebuttal that this is not working, this is not the right thing or this is not the right approach. That is not what I would like to have. That's why I support the idea that we should at least have the Privacy Commissioner present to answer some of our questions. Yes, he made a presentation before, and he was mentioned by other people in their submissions, but that's different from having him present. New questions, new perspectives and new insights have been raised.
We need to have a balance of opinions and need to have people here who can give us another perspective so that we can actually strike a balance.