Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join in the debate. I want to thank the hon. member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin for bringing this forward. At the end of the day it would be nice to see unanimous support for this bill.
Quite frankly, this should be seen as complex, yes, but controversial, no. The issue should be motherhood in terms of whether we believe as a nation that we have laws that will protect the freedom of the press and, in this case, the specific part of it that relates to releasing confidential information, information that a reporter, during the course of his or her duties, has given such commitment and whether the law and the courts would have the right to force a reporter to divulge it.
We have had a couple of very clear examples in Canada. One of them happened in my own home town of Hamilton. All members and many people watching would be familiar with the reporter from the Ottawa Citizen, Juliet O'Neill. I believe the case has already been mentioned during the debates and we know what happened. We now have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.
When we look back, now that we know exactly what happened, it is actually a bit of a stain on this country that this process took place. Police not only went through her office but they went to her home. I just want to make this as personal as possible because at the end of the day this person was looking at armed officers at her door carrying out the duties that the court had ordered. What it meant was that they were going through her underwear drawer.
Given the incredibly historic importance of the Maher Arar case, where was Canada? Where was our Charter of Rights? Where were the words that sound good about protection and the individual rights and freedoms that Canadians have under the Constitution for journalists and freedom of the press? Where was all of that? The speeches do not matter much if, when the rubber hits the road, the protection is not there for individual Canadians.
That is why I again want to thank my colleague, who I have known for quite some time. I said before that we had the opportunity, when we were both the respective solicitors general of our provinces, to work together on both provincial and national matters. I am not the least bit surprised that when we are talking about rights, it would be the hon. member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin who stepped up and put this important legislation forward. I honour him for that. This is very good.
The other case I want to mention is the one of Ken Peters who was a reporter for The Hamilton Spectator. I also want to say that the mover of the bill acknowledged that he was aware of this case and its significance. I am sure it was one of the reasons that he saw fit to bring this bill forward.
Many of us in Hamilton have known Ken for a long time. He would be the poster child of a professional journalist. If we were to ask anybody who has worked with him, either within the business or as a community leader who has been on the other side of his role, the person would say that he is a professional through and through.
What did he say when he was eventually asked by a judge to divulge a confidential source? He stated:
“I have no alternative,” Peters told the Canadian Press last week. “I am a Canadian journalist. We protect our sources.”
The ability to say that as a proud Canadian only matters if we have the law to back it up, otherwise they are just words.
To illustrate the kind of class that Mr. Peters has, when the judge asked him directly to release that confidential source, he stood in his place and said, “With all due respect, Your Honour, I can't do that”.
At that moment Mr. Peters needed this place. He needed the Constitution of Canada and he needed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They were not there.
The Canadian Newspaper Association stated on November 18, 2004:
Anne Kothawala, President and CEO of the Canadian Newspaper Association called on media organizations across Canada to join in expressing support for Ken Peters, a Hamilton Spectator reporter cited yesterday for contempt of court for refusing to provide information that would expose a confidential source. Mr. Peters faces a possible jail term and will be sentenced next week.
“The principle that a journalist has not just a right but also an obligation to protect sources is absolutely fundamental to press freedom,” Ms. Kothawala said. “It's a principle that has been recognized all around the world as critical for democracy.”
What country stands prouder on the world stage in presenting itself as a democratic nation than Canada? This is where it all happens. This is where that pride comes from. If it is not based in law, again it is just words.
I want to say to the member in going through the procedures here, there has been a call for a shield. If I am interpreting that properly, a shield would mean “I am a journalist and I am protecting this source” and that ends it right there. Not having that would be the opposite. Canada falls somewhere in between but not in a great place, given the Ken Peters case and the Juliet O'Neill case.
We are open for more debate later I would hope. I hope the bill gets to committee where it can be thought out thoroughly, but it looks like it is a bit of shield and then a little more process.
I know that professional journalists across Canada have been calling for at the very least a more clarified process and this does that. I can appreciate that the member had to keep in mind when he wrote the bill that it has to get through the House, so the end product is not always what has been presented here. Knowing the member as I do, that committee would be fascinating to watch.
I would hope at that committee there would be an opportunity for all parties, or at least a majority, to beef up the shield part.
I know that we cannot go all the way, or at least I have heard pretty good arguments, that at some point there may need to be the ability and that we would want collectively as democrats, not New Democrats per se, but as democrats, to make sure that the flexibility is there.
As it is written I suspect when we begin to hear from some of the journalist associations and the journalists themselves they may suggest that the process is good and it provides more context and makes it clearer and tighter, but the fact is that the Security of Information Act which was brought in to amend the Official Secrets Act after the Anti-terrorism Act caused all kinds of trouble, section 4 of that act was used to actually issue the warrant for The Ottawa Citizen journalist. It would seem to me there is ample room and opportunity for us to provide more along the line of a guaranteed protection. Although I do believe the existence of it is necessary, I hope that we could collectively look at other legislation. Many American states are beginning to move toward this. I think there is an opportunity for us to have a good piece of legislation.
I do not want to be too partisan, so let me just read from the last paragraph from a Hamilton Spectator editorial that concerned a meeting with the Liberal minister at the time:
The minister admitted he hadn't had time to consider the matter much further since then, being distracted by the troubles inherent in a minority government and all. But he did say that he believed in the importance and necessary role a free press played in supporting democracy and that he felt that a “shield law or something” like it should be examined.
We'll take you at your word on that Mr. Minister and look forward to any proposals you may bring forward.
I am not aware that any came forward.
I thank very much the hon. member for bringing this bill to us. I hope that a majority in the House would wish that it least get to committee. Every one of us at some point has talked about the fact that freedom of the press needs to be protected. Now is the opportunity for parliamentarians to put their precious vote behind those words.