Mr. Speaker, Motion No. 4 deletes the cut off date which qualifies Sports Illustrated from issuing split run decisions in Canada but allows others like Reader's Digest to continue. It is ironic that the government is bringing in legislation to cut off Sports Illustrated but it is going to let Readers Digest continue with the same thing. Obviously Sports Illustrated is being unfairly targeted.
Changing the date of the grandfathering provision allows Sports Illustrated to escape the provisions of the bill and averts the trade war that could result if Sports Illustrated is suddenly prevented from issuing split run editions.
It is true that Canadian culture was exempted under NAFTA's trade rules, but the Americans did retain the right to retaliate in kind if they so wished. The government believes that the Americans cannot and will not do that because the bill uses a roundabout way to protect Canadian periodicals. I think the government is wrong. Americans can make life very miserable for Canadian exporters in all kinds of ways and we may see that retaliation. They can do that whether it is justified or not, but in this case they definitely have the right to retaliate. Some other industry is going to bear the brunt of this ill conceived policy.
This bill should raise a red flag for the government. Even if the government does not have problems with the idea of this bill, it should at least recognize it as a provocation for a trade dispute and realize that the timing is all wrong. All we need is to get hit in another industry with retaliation because of what is happening with this ill conceived bill.
I support my colleague's amendment.