Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary did as I predicted; that is, he tried to provide some soothing words to assure me and others that this bill is okay and that it will protect against the concerns that we have. However, I am not reassured by his comments.
If he believes, as he says, that he cares about the privacy of Canadians, then why would the government not have supported the amendments that were put forward by the NDP? We also suggested in committee that we should impose the same rules on this operation, RADARSAT-2, as we do on the defence industry. That was a no go, as well. It seems to me that the government is trying to do as little as it can. It did not adopt those amendments.
I clearly want to state that if the parliamentary secretary is somehow interpreting that we do not have concerns about how information and images from this RADARSAT-2 can be used for military purposes, star wars or anything else, then he is wrong. That is a serious concern that we have and one of the reasons that we sought amendments at committee that were defeated.
Yes, his job is to try and convince all of us that everything is A-okay under this bill, but it is not. The reality is that those concerns still persist from at least two of the parties in this House and certainly from organizations which track and monitor the government's policies and progress in terms of this kind of development and how it can be used for other purposes, so we are not reassured.