Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hard-working colleague for the very thoughtful question. There is nothing more important than one's private information. There is some information people just do not want to share with other people. We have insisted on removing the provisions in Bill S-4 that would allow organizations to share personal information without Canadians' consent and without a warrant. We have also said that there are loopholes in this bill that need to be addressed. We tried to address them with amendments, but of course, we were ignored.

However, we are not the only ones who are saying that. Here is a quote from Michael Geist, who is a law professor at the University of Ottawa:

the broad provision that we have here opening the door to massive expansion of non-notified voluntary disclosure without any of the kinds of limitations that we typically find even the courts asking for should be removed.

He has also said:

While the government has claimed that this provision should not concern Canadians, the reality is that the broadly worded exception will allow companies to disclose personal information to other companies or organizations without court approval.

It is a lack of transparency, a lack of disclosure, and a lack of reporting requirements and believing that these companies can police themselves. Surely we have learned lessons from other situations. There are some glaring omissions in this bill, and they should be addressed.

As a matter of fact, Michael Geist even says, “[This bill] is both not well studied and ought to be fixed. Canadians deserve better”.

Jinny Sims

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