Mr. Speaker, I listened attentively to the comments of my hon. colleague. I compliment him for obviously spending a lot of time going through all clauses of the bill. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how one looks at it, I do not agree with many of his conclusions. I want to compliment him because he has obviously put a lot of care, time and effort into preparing for what he has done today.
I disagree with him on a number of areas. The bill is a compromise for what is asked by some who I do not believe represent the majority of Canadians. It addresses those issues that need to be addressed in the immediate future. The bill is going to be up for review in its entirety as the minister requested.
Knowing how thoughtful the member has been in his remarks, in spite of the fact that I disagree with a number of them, I want to get back to the issue of polling as started by one of his colleagues. I have great difficulty with legislating that way on all kinds of grounds: on moral grounds to start with because when we are legislating for a small group of people we can as legislators be easily swayed, particularly when a system is designed so that one actually pays for the call.
I submit, although I am not a sociologist, that system would automatically lead one to pay when one is against rather than to pay to express one's opinion. That is the way people normally think. One would not likely pay to phone someone to say one agrees with the status quo. One is more likely to pay to protest. That is human nature.
Does the member think this kind of polling is proper? After all, one has to pay a private enterprise to be issued with House of Commons letterhead, with the coat of arms of our country on the top. It was signed at the bottom by a person purporting to be chief returning officer. I believe that to be impersonating an officer of Parliament.
Chief Returning Officer Victor Bennington signed the letter with the coat of arms of Canada on it. It asks MPs to make a telephone call which results in an expenditure to some enterprise, the telephone company or whatever, of $1 plus 95 cents and so on. We could easily argue that this is a fund raising letter on House of Commons letterhead, signed by someone pretending to be an officer of Parliament.
Is this in the name of justice? Will this make Canada a more just society? After listening to what that member said and as profoundly as he believes what he said, I cannot help but ask him whether he agrees with the nonsense that all members were distributed earlier today or whenever it was.