My colleague, the member for Chicoutimi, has not yet been heard. I hope that he will rise and, for once, defend the interests of Quebec in the House and that he will do so in a strong voice, with his friends from the Bloc Quebecois.
I would like to quote Jean-Pierre Bernier, of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. The last time I checked, that association was not exactly a supporter of the Bloc Quebecois. Mr. Bernier said:
There is a constitutional issue here, since personal information, in my opinion, comes under provincial jurisdiction, under the heading “Property and Civil Rights”. Therefore, I think it would be very difficult for the federal government to pass legislation dealing exclusively with the protection of personal information. If you are able to relate personal information protection rules to an area of activity where federal authority is not in doubt, you have more chances to occupy the field, if I may put it this way.
This is rather clear, but he is not the only one who thinks so. There is also Michel Venne, a well known and respected journalist in Quebec, who works for Le Devoir , the great newspaper founded by Henri Bourassa in 1910, the motto of which is “Do what you must”. We are doing what we must by opposing this bill.
He wrote: “The justice ministers of the provinces and the territories expressed strong concerns about significant invasions of provincial and territory jurisdiction found in Bill C-54—now Bill C-6. They asked the federal government to withdraw the bill and to consult the provinces and the territories. If the resolution passed in the House of Commons in December 1995 and recognizing Quebec as a distinct society by its language, its culture and its civil code meant anything, Mr. Manley should have provided for an exclusion for Quebec in the original bill”.
This is a quote, I am reading it. According to the Standing Orders of the House, we may name a minister.
In Quebec, there is unanimity against the federal bill. Why is that? Because in Quebec, who have been at the forefront of the area for years or even decades, well before we came to this place, the Liberal government of the day, with the support of the Parti québécois, put in place its own personal data protection system in 1994.
That clearly shows that even at that time, the issue escaped partisan politics that is normal in any democratic society. However, the bill passed by the National Assembly in 1994 was only one element of the legal interest for privacy protection that already existed in Quebec.
As was pointed out earlier by my colleague for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve, sections 37 to 40 of the Civil Code already cover the protection of privacy and the Civil Code on which is based all the Quebec legal system is not to be swept aside.
Not only that, but another document which has almost a constitutional value in Quebec, that is, the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, also protects privacy. Thus, the Charter, which was adopted in 1974, if I remember well, and the Quebec Civil Code, which has been adopted only recently—we were governed by the Lower Canada Civil Code between 1866 and 1992 or 1993, if my memory serves me right—all demonstrated how important the protection of privacy was for the Quebec legislator.
What is this government doing? Without any consideration not only for the importance that Quebec had given to the protection of privacy but also for the unanimous opinion of Quebecers of all political colours, it has decided to interfere directly in this area. And it is doing it very awkwardly.
I will conclude by saying that the Bloc Quebecois is asking the federal government to withdraw this bill.
I hope that Quebec's members from the Liberal Party of Canada will request the same thing. I hope I will have the opportunity to hear them speaking on this issue.
