Mr. Speaker, I hope you realize the additional burden put on me today by having to speak after the learned member for Chambly, a redoubtable parliamentarian who speaks so eloquently. This adds an element of stress to the privilege of rising in this House.
I will nevertheless do my best, as always. I beg your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, and hope that, when we meet privately, you will not comment on the fact that my performance did not measure up to the one just given by the hon. member for Chambly.
That said, my opening remarks having been clearly made—I can see the members opposite smiling—it is a pleasure to speak on the bill before us. I want to congratulate my colleague, the hon. member for Mercier, for her work on this bill at the industry committee. She works hard on all issues, but especially on this one. This is a critical issue in that it concerns the rights and freedoms of the people we represent. That is why the member for Mercier has decided to lead the battle she is currently leading in this House. I want to congratulate her on that.
We all know, and I am not making this up, that the fact that we are a distinct society needs not be recognized in statutory law. There is no need to put it in writing; we in Quebec have moved way beyond the laying down of the concept of distinct society. We Quebeckers, Quebec residents, the people of Quebec, know that Quebec is a unique model in North America for its legislation regarding the protection of personal information.
Quebeckers know—and I am pleased to inform Canadians in the House and those listening at home—that, since 1982, Quebec has had a law protecting privacy in the public sector. It will be recalled that it was the Parti Quebecois government led by René Lévesque that passed this legislation ensuring privacy protection in 1982.
All the provinces and the federal government subsequently followed our lead and passed similar legislation. In 1994, Quebec passed a law extending the protection of personal information to the private sector. In fact, Quebec is the only state in North America with a law protecting personal information in the private sector, a law that has been on the books for over four years. The proof that we are in the vanguard is Bill C-54, introduced four years after Quebec passed its own privacy legislation.
I had another comment. Quebec's legislation is consistent with the International Bill of Human Rights, which considers the protection of personal information a fundamental right.
Section 5 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, passed in 1975, reads as follows:
- Every person has the right to respect of his or her privacy.
We know that Bill C-54 is at attempt to deliver on the many promises for a federal law protecting personal information in the private sector. But the title of the bill itself reads as follows: “An act to support and promote electronic commerce by protecting personal information that is collected, used or disclosed in certain circumstances, by providing for the use of electronic means to communicate or record information or transactions and by amending the Canada Evidence Act, the Statutory Instruments Act and the Statute Revision Act”.
Bill C-54 is not a bill to protect personal information. It is a bill that provides little protection for personal information in the commercial sector alone. The essence of Bill C-54 is its schedule, as my colleague from Chambly pointed out.
Its schedule is written in the conditional. We know the great importance of words in legislative texts. People who are governed by these laws say “No one is above the law, but we have to have laws written with words”. So the wording and the terminology of this bill are vital to those who have to interpret it.
In this case, the schedule is written in the conditional, which means it is only giving recommendations. We find “should, could, would”.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know if you have a legal background, but all young lawyers and students in the faculty of law watching us know that in the first year law courses we are taught the grammatical construction of laws. We learn to differentiate between “may” and “shall”.