That is the Globe and Mail story entitled, “Ottawa takes aim at bioterror; Second terrorism bill toughens penalties and loosens air passenger privacy rules”, by Steven Chase and Campbell Clark with reports from Brian Laghi, Daniel Leblanc and Shawn McCarthy.
This is exactly the story to which I am referring. It goes on with a number of such speculated things, a couple of them which happen to be correct, I will admit that, particularly the one that says the bill deals with bioterrorism. That is the title of the bill. It would not be surprising that the bill dealt with that which was in the title. In terms of what would such bioterrorism measures include, Canada has signed a convention. It is all in a public convention and it is in the title of the bill.
The reporters are very smart but the one who concluded that what is in the title of the bill and what is in the international convention we signed, and he speculated that was in the bill, frankly that does not require rocket science. Most people could have speculated on that particular one.
Let us listen to some more. This time it is the National Post story:
Sources said the government is considering creating a new agency of government responsible for transport security, reporting to Transport Canada.
That is not in the bill at all. Let me read further. The Ottawa Citizen has a story by Rick Mofina. This is a real good one. It says:
On Monday, Parliament gave notice of a new bill entitled--
Mr. Speaker, you being the expert on parliamentary procedure that you are, how does parliament give notice of a bill? This mechanism does not exist. I as leader of the government in the House give notice of all government bills pursuant to authority given to me by cabinet. Parliament does not give notice of a bill. The article goes on to say:
Meanwhile, the global pact on germ warfare is under review at an ongoing conference concerning the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, ratified by 144 countries, including Canada.
All of this was obvious to anyone who read the title of the bill that was presented in the House today, just in case somebody says, “Oh yes, but the bill was presented today, we did not know the title”. I would bet that is what the hon. member who is heckling was going to say.
That was put on the notice paper, at the back of the order paper under the Roman numerals on the first page, two days ago. That is where that piece of brilliant information comes from.
I do not know where the evidence is of a leak this time. First, there has been an unfair comparison made with Bill C-15. Second, a whole pile of what I saw was factually inaccurate. Third, the little bit of it that was, was very easy to speculate on, such as reading the title of the bill which again is not rocket science.