Mr. Speaker, with what the leader of government has done to us today, namely gagging us, it is with sadness that I am taking part in the debate on report stage of Bill C-6, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
This bill is nothing more that a reincarnation of the bill presented by the Minister of Industry as Bill C-54 during the first session of this Parliament, and which was unanimously rejected in Quebec.
Since the federal government refuses to withdraw its bill, the Bloc Quebecois and its representative on this issue, the Member for Témiscamingue, are presenting today an amendment motion whose intent is to suppress clauses of the bill which would represent a setback in the field of personal information protection in Quebec. Let us not forget that the Minister of Industry tabled his bill on personal information without waiting for the results of a consultation that he had himself launched.
The minister tabled his bill in October 1998 without waiting for the comments of his provincial counterparts to whom he had just sent a proposal of bill. However, at a meeting held in Fredericton in June of 1998, the ministers in charge of information highway agreed to consult each other on the opportunity to adopt a legislation concerning personal information protection in the private sector.
Once again, the federal government adopted a unilateral and paternalistic approach and imposed its point of view to the provinces. That is not very surprising.
The Bloc asked that the bill be withdrawn for reasons of principles, including the fact that it had been introduced without consultations and that the bill is an encroachment on provincial jurisdiction over civil law. The Bloc also asks for the withdrawal of the bill because it would represent a major weakening of the legal provisions concerning personal information protection in Quebec. The bill contains many legal deficiencies and its implementation in Quebec would cause many duplications and a lot of confusion. This is not the first time the liberal government duplicates legislation since I have been elected in this House.
Quebec's legislation is based on the charter of human rights where the protection of personal information is declared a basic right. As a matter of fact, section 5 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms says that: “Every person has a right to respect for his private life.” This right is also defined and framed in the Quebec Civil Code, which states the basic principles governing the collection, retention and use of personal information.
The personal information of Quebecers is also very well protected under two laws. The first one, adopted in 1982, deals with the protection of privacy in the public sector, and the second one, adopted in 1994, extends that protection to the private sector.
It seems the federal government cannot accept the fact that Quebec has the best system in Canada and is adamant about imposing its legislation even if it means reducing the protection now enjoyed by Quebecers.
And yet, we heard the federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs say in one of his speeches in May 1998 that we had to, and I quote:
—stop using the easy way out by claiming that a government initiative responds to too much of a pressing need to be stifled by jurisdictional issues—jurisdictional conflicts create confusion that diminishes the quality of public policies.
Obviously, the minister does not do as he says or he does not talk often enough to his colleague, the Minister of Industry, who says it is urgent to legislate to protect the rights of Canadians and uses that as an excuse to interfere in areas under provincial jurisdiction and to impose a system that is criticized by Quebec's society as a whole.
When the committee held public hearings regarding this bill, every professional, business, labour and consumer organization in Quebec expressed its preference for the system already in place in that province. This is why these organizations unanimously requested that Quebec be excluded from the application of the bill we are debating today so that the federal government does not impose upon them, with regard to the protection of personal information, a system that is different from the one that has been in place in Quebec for five years.
In a letter to the industry minister dated February 4, the Barreau du Quebec wrote:
Privacy falls under provincial jurisdiction over property and civil rights—Generally, we believe that the federal access to information and privacy system is not efficient enough—the bill—should be amended in order to provide explicitly that the federal act does not apply to private sector businesses subjected to the Privacy Act.
For its part, the Chambre des notaires du Québec, which represents over 3 000 legal professionals, wrote to the industry minister on April 7 to denounce the duplications that would result from this bill being imposed on Quebec, and ask that it be amended to avoid such a situation. I will quote from its letter:
We believe the overlapping of systems will result in undue complications and misunderstandings both for consumers and organizations subject to two different sets of rules in the same area—we believe an amendment is necessary to exclude from its application professionals, notaries, and any individual or organization subject to the Quebec legislation.
Finally, the Conseil interprofessionnel du Québec, with 260,000 members from 43 Quebec professional organizations, also wrote to the Minister of Industry on March 23 to tell him the following:
Quebec professionals are already governed by a specific and structured set of acts and regulations tailored to the values of the Quebec people—We believe that superimposing several systems with the same intent can only cause confusion and uncertainty about citizens' rights—The emergence of another comprehensive system might unduly complicate citizens' life.
Also of concern is the fact that the second part of the bill, which deals with electronic documents, could deprive the provinces from their right to define concepts such as signature, contracts and other procedures that are now covered under civil law.
Given all the deficiencies in Bill C-6 and the threat it poses to the system now in place in Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois has proposed an amendment to limit damages that this bill, if passed, could cause by explicitly excluding from its scope provinces that already have legislation on the protection of personal information in the private sector.
Another amendment is designed to maintain the privacy protection afforded to Quebecers by provincial legislation when dealing with federal companies doing business in Quebec.
I am afraid that, once again, the federal government is not listening to Quebec's will and putting it in a yoke. I condemn the domineering attitude of the federal government, which wants to dictate its will to all the provinces by imposing, from sea to sea, measures that are “made in Ottawa”, without any concern for effectiveness and without taking into consideration their negative impact on citizens' rights.