Mr. Speaker, you had to interrupt me—and I am sure you were not happy about it—before Oral Question Period when I was on a roll.
I will start the second part of my speech with another quote from Mr. Bourassa, the former Liberal Premier of Quebec who said on Wednesday, March 4, 1992, in reaction to the Beaudoin-Dobbie Commission's report:
What we find in the Beaudoin-Dobbie report is some kind of domination reflex, of dominating federalism. They think they must be involved in all sectors and that, for all intents and purposes, they could have the last word. We do not think this approach respects the Canadian Constitution.
That is what former federalist premier Robert Bourassa said.
Having said that, I should draw a parallel with this bill, which is a very good example of the dominating federalism to which we are constantly subjected in this Chamber and to which Quebeckers want to put an end. We in the Bloc Quebecois say, and many in Quebec agree, that the only way to get rid of this dominating federalism is to have a sovereign Quebec.
When it comes to the defence of consumers and the public, governments should sit up and take note. Many have said so. I was pleased to hear the Canadian Federation for Independent Business say how important it is to remember that consumers are not only individuals or citizens, but also small businesses that do not have the same financial means as the large corporations and that find themselves in the position of David versus Goliath, and this has nothing to do with the Bible as things currently stand.
It is important to remember that small business is a large part of Quebec's social and economic fabric. True, there are some large corporations, but there are also small businesses and we in the Bloc Québécois are trying to represent their interests as best we can.
This bill is extremely disappointing. It fails to give citizens the protection they expect. The Internet is not just for commerce and cannot be isolated from civil society.
We had a debate on telemarketing in the House. The government wanted to deal firmly with companies engaged in misleading telemarketing, by requiring them to sat very clearly at the beginning of the call who they were and what the purpose of the telemarketing was. I am in favour of this approach.
The Bloc Quebecois sought to introduce an amendment extending that to the Internet. Now we have a bill on electronic commerce which says nothing on that score. Yet, more and more people would like to use this medium—which is only a medium and not another universe, as the OECD acknowledged—but they will do so only if they have real protection.
The first step is a full protection, extending not only to electronic commerce, but also to personal information and privacy. This is what the bill is all about.
Those who speak after me will come back on that, but it will probably require international agreements.
To conclude, I will say that that we, in the Bloc Quebecois, expect the country to which we will belong for a few more years, Canada, to show leadership, the kind of leadership that will reassure the public. Based on the promises of this Liberal government and the previous ones, we were expecting real legislation, legislation that would protect privacy in the private sector.