Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise for the second time within half an hour, this time on Bill C-229.
I have great difficulty understanding the attitude of my Reform colleague. This bill originates with a member from across the floor who is most certainly close to the elderly and other more vulnerable members of society. The hon. member obviously wants to defend these people with her bill. CThis is something to be proud of, and I congratulate her for her initiative.
Some people in our society may be rather easily misled. If they are approached with false representations, fake brands, fake images or other devious means, this is a reprehensible act. It may not be legally wrong under the Competition Act, but it is morally wrong.
I believe we need to support Bill C-229. Its objective is to assist and protect those members of our society most in need of protection. I have great difficulty, and always will have great difficulty, understanding the attitude of my friends in the Reform Party. This is not the first time either. The same thing has happened a number of times.
During the last parliament, the member for Portneuf introduced an amendment to the Bankruptcy Act, so that when assets were being distributed in a bankruptcy, employees would have precedence over the banks, and the wealthy. To my great surprise, Reform Party members voted unanimously against that proposal.
I remember another instance. We wanted to limit the penalty imposed for getting out of a mortgage to three months interest. Nowadays, things go so fast that the mortgage lender who is paid back before the end of the term of a mortgage hardly suffers any prejudice, since capital funds are so mobile.
Yours truly had proposed that the penalty that can be imposed by a financial institution be limited to three months interest. Again, contrary to all expectations—I did not understand then and I still do not understand now, three or four years later—the Reform Party voted against that proposal. It is as though the western Canadians, whom they represent, were all very rich and happy to pay penalties when they pay back a loan for farm machinery, or the mortgage on a silo, a house or a barn.
It is this far right attitude that makes these people difficult to understand. We have a duty to protect the most disadvantaged, those who are most likely to be affected by illegal marketing, ploys and schemes. Again, I find it hard to understand the Reform Party's attitude.
Reformers seem to think “It is a free for all. If someone succeeds in fooling an elderly person, so be it. These are the rules of the game, the rules of commercial competition”. But what about ethics?
I think that they are forgetting something important, commercial ethics. It is a question of what is right. It is not my intention to say that the Reform Party members lack moral standards, although they seem shy about expressing them here. Yet this is the perfect place.
We must congratulate the member who introduced this bill on her initiative. I hope that she will be able to introduce others in future for our consideration. If they are like this one, it augurs well.
There are parliamentarians on both sides of the House who respect their fellow citizens and are concerned about their well-being and who introduce bills that reflect this. It is not easy to get a private member's bill this far. Sometimes, it takes the signatures of 100 other parliamentarians for a bill to be debatable and votable here.
Often political life throws us into various committees. They are not the best place to make friends and it takes a lot of courage and nerve to go through the hoops anyway and approach people with whom one has sometimes had run-ins or “coltaillés” as we say in French. The member for Matapédia—Matane will know what I mean by “coltaillé” as will the member for Stormont—Dundas—Charlottenburgh, who is also a francophone and knows our colourful expressions.
It takes courage to approach members individually for their signature and sometimes to get them to set aside their petty grudges. But when members succeed at this, that shows respect for democracy and for their fellow human beings. When one makes it through the procedure that the member embarked on and a bill gets this far, it is no longer the time to tear it apart and toss it into the wastebasket. It is the time to debate it. It is the time to recognize its merit. It is the time to take the necessary action.
I will not go on, but I congratulate the member. She can count on my personal support and that of the Bloc Quebecois members, because her bill shows respect for the individual.