OTTAWA — Cheryl Gallant, MP Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, in a speech in the House of Commons, is urging members of the Opposition to support legislation that among other things, protect children when they use the internet.
Hansard May 12, 2015 Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, Conservative):
It is my pleasure to rise in my place and express strong support for Bill S-4, the Digital Privacy Act. This legislation would make important updates to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, commonly known as PIPEDA.
I take issues of privacy very seriously, just as do the people in my riding, like teachers, parents, and grandparents. The number one concern that is expressed to me by individuals is their right to privacy and their right to be protected from the misuse of private information. When it comes to the Internet, while it has brought many improvements to the lives of Canadians, the concern always is what happens to the information that is collected from the Internet on individuals and how it may be used.
The bill would require companies to inform Canadians if their personal information has been lost or stolen and if they have been put at risk as a result. It would also clarify the rules around obtaining individuals’ consent to collect their personal information, clarifications that would ensure children and other vulnerable groups would be protected when they go online.
The recent high-profile criminal court case in Ontario of a hand-picked senior Liberal provincial deputy minister being convicted of charges related to the heinous crime of pedophilia using the Internet demonstrates how dangerous a place the Internet is for children and the continual need to try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. The fact that an individual could occupy such a senior position for years as deputy minister of education and a senior advisor to the Liberal premier of Ontario, and apparently do so undiscovered until uncovered by an international crime investigation, is shocking.
Convicted pedophile Ben Levin was photographed happily campaigning with the leader of the third party in this place undetected, apparently, or otherwise. This demonstrates why we must always keep up our guard, particularly when children are involved. The Internet is a dangerous place for children.
My constituents in Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke know that, when children are involved, I will always err on the side of caution. As we have discussed many times before, strong rules are meaningless if they are not backed up with strong compliance tools.
