Madam Speaker, earlier I addressed the four groups together. Now we are on Group No. 2 of Bill C-20.
Industry Canada deserves our support for this particular initiative. We recognize that Bill C-20 is very important and some of the amendments are pretty good. The thing here is we are fighting against a timeframe and while we are against a timeframe, fraudulent telemarketing is hurting the most vulnerable and very poor in our society. It hurts people who cannot defend themselves against these marketing scams.
For example, our senior citizens are the hardest hit category in this particular scam. We all know that deceptive telemarketing hurts honest people and those telemarketers mar the whole industry. Senior citizens are less reliant on the Internet at this time. We know that Internet is coming up very fast. We know therefore it is not pressing at this time. The amendments in this bill should have been passed yesterday because every day telemarketing scams are hurting vulnerable seniors.
Canada's high tech economy will become Internet dependent one day. The time will come when we have to address this issue. I agree 100% the Internet must be regulated. It must be regulated in a way that allows commerce to flourish and consumers to be protected. This matter will be addressed at a ministerial conference in October, and the industry committee will be addressing this particular issue. This issue should be studied at the steering committee.
The second group of amendments will expand Bill C-20 to include Internet communications. Bill C-20 is aimed at addressing the whole telemarketing industry itself. This bill will address the potential for psychological coercion during personal telephone communications. High pressure telemarketing sales people try to sell their programs and services. It is difficult for senior citizens to hang up sometimes.
The Bloc amendments do not account for the fact that the same level of coercion recognized in telephone communications is not present in Internet communications. Internet communication allows one to simply point and click with the mouse in order to delete and put an end to the solicitation.
Person to person voice communication is not as easy to terminate because it is more interactive. No doubt there is a need for some rules to be applied to Internet communication, but, as I said, this issue should be resolved later so that we can give adequate protection to our senior citizens who are vulnerable to these telemarketing scams.
I will therefore oppose the particular set of motions in group 2. I do not think there is a member in this House who does not support this bill. We should get on with passing this bill so that those people can be protected.