ORAL QUESTIONS
Privacy
Hon. Garth Turner (Halton, Lib.): Turner.G@parl.gc.ca
"Mr. Speaker, millions of Canadians may have had their privacy breached and their trust misused by members of this House. This is due to CIMS, a database run by the Conservative Party, which each party MP has installed in his or her office.
Unknown to millions of constituents, personal information is routinely fed into this database, which experts are calling a 'chilling' breach of ethics. Will the Prime Minister do the ethical thing and release the names of Canadians in this database, giving voters the opportunity, if they wish, to opt out?"
Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC): VanLoan.P@parl.gc.ca
"Again, Mr. Speaker, I appeal to you in that I fail to see what a political party database has to do with government business.
What I can assure the member of is that no department of this government makes use of that database. It is a party database. I do not understand his concern."
Hon. Garth Turner (Halton, Lib.): Turner.G@parl.gc.ca
"Mr. Speaker, I will answer that. When the Canadian Press asked the Conservatives if citizens could see their file in the party's secret database, the party asked what the specific reason for that would be.
I will answer that. This is their information. It belongs to them. This is their privacy that the government party has no reason to breach. These are their own members of Parliament elected to serve-"
The Deputy Speaker: Blaikie.B@parl.gc.ca
"The hon. government House leader."
Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC):
"Mr. Speaker, I will say it again: it is a political party database. How political parties run their campaigns in terms of databases has nothing to do with the administration of government and no department uses it. No minister's office uses it that I know of."
Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.): Szabo.P@parl.gc.ca
"Mr. Speaker, the government has not denied that it obtains and exploits personal information for political purposes. The Conservatives have created a national database that records personal information which was confidentially provided to the Government of Canada.
What Canadians want to hear from the government is that the person elected to represent them is not using the confidential personal information to fundraise for political purposes. Will the Prime Minister cease this unethical practice and stop violating the privacy of Canadians?"
Hon. Jason Kenney (Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), CPC): Kenney.J@parl.gc.ca
"Mr. Speaker, is this not special? The Liberals, who have made an art out of communicating with different communities based on publicly available lists, are now shocked that someone else should do the same thing.
I can see why the member for Thornhill is not asking these questions any more. She very kindly sent out Rosh Hashanah greetings to her constituents: 'SHANA TOVA My best wishes for a year filled with peace, good health and happiness'. That was from the MP from Thornhill.
I also got a notice yesterday that members of the Chinese community in her constituency were receiving Chinese New Year's greetings.
Would those members just please stop the hypocrisy?"
Mr. Paul Szabo (Mississauga South, Lib.):
"Mr. Speaker, invasion of privacy and ethnic or religious profiling is simply unacceptable. If someone contacts an MP with a CPP or passport problem, they do not expect to land up on a political mailing list. For example, we saw this last year when the member for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke was caught collecting information from passport applications to send out birthday cards.
This type of unethical behaviour is inexcusable and alarms Canadians, who expect their members to represent them, not exploit them. Will the Prime Minister do the honourable thing and stop this unethical practice now?"
Hon. Jason Kenney (Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), CPC):
"Mr. Speaker, only a Liberal could think it is unethical to wish somebody a happy New Year.
Here I have a letter from the co-presidents of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who say:
We commend the Prime Minister for this thoughtful gesture. We are heartened that our elected officials make the effort to extend good wishes to members of other faith communities, communities that make a vibrant contribution to the diverse multicultural fabric of Canada.
That is what the communities are saying, but perhaps that member would like to ask his colleague from Thornhill why she was sending Chinese New Year's greetings to members of the Chinese community in her riding and where she came up with those lists. Probably from the same place we did."
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