Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-315 standing in the name of the hon. member for Cariboo-Chilcotin.
The purpose of this bill is to complement the present laws of Canada that protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves obtained by certain corporations. It is part of a debate that has been going on for several years about the best way to protect personal information obtained or held by federally regulated private corporations.
In the public sector, the federal Privacy Act already protects employees and the public against abuse of this information. However, this legislation does not in any way affect the activities of private companies that are subject to the Canada Labour Code. The latter are therefore free to act as they see fit.
Although it is certainly not my purpose to point an accusing finger, we must admit that in some cases, this could lead to abuse both unpleasant and unfortunate.
In Quebec, as the hon. member pointed out on first reading of this bill, a number of unique legislative measures were introduced to improve the protection of personal information. In fact, Quebec's Civil Code deals with the issue of protecting individual privacy, which provisions came into force by a decision of the National Assembly in 1993.
The Commission d'accès à l'information, chaired by the former director of Le Devoir , is responsible for implementation of the various provisions included in the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information. Finally, since 1994 the same commission has been responsible for implementing legislation on the protection of information in the private sector.
This goes to show that the protection of personal information, both in the private and public sectors, requires considerable co-ordination between the various acts and regulations and the activities of those responsible for compliance and enforcement. Although I did not say so explicitly, it is of course not easy to protect privacy fully and effectively. In this respect, Bill C-315 may seem to be somewhat lacking.
First, in its present form Bill C-315 regulates only the sale of lists. These lists of names containing personal and confidential information could therefore be lent or given away without breaking the law. Since these are still the same lists with the same information, it seems to me that the mere fact of passing them on to various organizations, for purposes for which they were not intended initially, should be prohibited and punished in the same way, whether or not any money changed hands.
Another aspect I think is unsatisfactory is the description or enumeration of what constitutes personal information. As we read the bill, we see that information as important as mother tongue, place of birth, sexual orientation and political affiliation is not included. Does this mean that this kind of information is not important enough to warrant protection? It would be important, in my opinion, for all information liable to trafficking, or rather to commerce, to be protected.
Another point: Bill C-315 deals with the transmission of lists containing personal information. This implies that any entrepreneur so desiring may, in total legality, sell information concerning one individual without risking any sanction. This point, in my opinion, constitutes a significant glitch in the very principle the bill is defending.
Before I conclude, looking at the sanctions set out in the bill, it will be seen that fines for noncompliance range from $5,000 to $10,000. To large companies, which generally have fairly sizeable lists, these fines do not mean much, particularly when we know the price a list containing confidential personal information can command.
There is no point here in continuing to examine Bill C-315 line by line. Merely reading its contents, plus a proper knowledge of the situation it is trying to control, is enough to understand that this bill, although well intentioned, is far from being equal to the objective it has set itself. There are many shortcomings in this bill. A number of amendments could be made to it. It seems to us that the best way of ensuring a complement to the present laws of Canada that protect the privacy of Canadians might have been to follow the same path as the new Quebec Civil Code. However, since the bill represents at least a small step forward, the Bloc will support it.