Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support Motion No. 7 under Group No. 3 which is before us. This motion recognizes the reality that not everyone in the public service is always pure and without fault. It recognizes the reality that confidential information can be misused. In fact, we can cite many instances where confidential information has been misused. Take for example the Income Tax Act. Everything is supposed to be confidential, yet every year we get specific examples of information having been improperly released by bureaucrats.
Although I am not big on very severe criminal penalties for ordinary citizens who get fouled up in the law, I am very supportive of strong penalties for people in positions of trust who abuse their responsibilities and commit offences. I would say that this proposal to raise the maximum penalty from two to five years for the improper release of information is very well placed.
We also could list examples of the improper use of lists. This government is great for lists. In fact all Canadian governments have been great for lists. We will recall that Bill C-68 was passed in the last parliament. Because there were lists of all the lawful owners of handguns in this country the government was able, suddenly and out of the blue, to declare that about 400,000 people owned firearms which were no longer legal. They were, in effect, confiscated because their value was reduced to zero by the stroke of a government pen.
If the government did not have a list, the government could not indulge in this sort of hanky-panky. It is no wonder the Canadian people are reluctant to have their names on anything, particularly in the computer age.
There are other amendments, of course, which we will be supporting to this particular legislation as we go on through the day and perhaps tomorrow.
There is the absurdity, for example, that DNA samples can be taken only after conviction. I suppose we should take fingerprints only after conviction and take mug shots only after conviction. Why there should be different rules for DNA than for fingerprinting is something I do not understand. However, that is another amendment which we will be discussing at a later time.
Getting back to Motion No. 7, I think it is very well thought out. I compliment the hon. member for bringing this forward. I notice some people on the other side nodding in agreement. I hope this amendment will ultimately pass because it really does improve the legislation.