Digital Copyright Canada

Elections Canada Electoral district profile (Links to Map, Past Candidates, and Past Election Results)

Member of Parliament for Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup / Montmagny - L'Islet - Kamouraska - Rivière-du-Loup

Name: Bernard Généreux
e-Mail: <Genereux.B@parl.gc.ca>
Party: Conservative Party of Canada

The New MPs are:

• New Westminster--Coquitlam: Fin Donnelly of the NDP with 49.6% of the vote and 29.9% voter turnout.
• Montmagny--L'Islet--Kamouraska--Rivière-du-Loup: Bernard Généreux of the Conservative party with 42.7% of the vote and 36.6% voter turnout.
• Hochelaga: Daniel Paillé of the Bloc Québécois with 51.2% of the vote and 22.3% voter turnout.
• Cumberland--Colchester--Musquodoboit Valley: Scott Armstrong of the Conservative party with 45.8 45.8% of the vote and 35.7% voter turnout.

By-elections have been called for November 9 in the ridings of Cumberland–Colchester–Musquodoboit Valley (Nova Scotia), Hochelaga (Quebec), Montmagny-L'Islet-Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup (Quebec), and

I have done a few weekly reviews of parliament, the previous one being to November 2. Sorry for not keeping up with these as I had intended. Parliament is currently debating a concurrence to committee report from Heritage committee (Broadcasting policy or the telecommunications policy for Canada), which reminded me that I should be posting these summaries. Some very interesting speeches by opposition members, with the Conservative government claiming a discussion of media obstructs/delays their crime bill.

As parliament was being recessed for the summer, James Rajotte stood up as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to table their latest report very embarrassingly titled Counterfeiting and Piracy are theft. See Michael Geist's article Industry Committee Demands a Canadian DMCA.

While I am obviously going to send a copy of my article Jefferson Debate: A Godwin's law for copyright discussions to each member, we clearly have a lot of work ahead of us to educate members of parliament on the basics of these issues. If you are in (or live near) the riding of any of these MPs, please make sure you set up a meeting in their constituency office this summer!

Election 2006: Please add comments to discuss riding specific activities, links to candidate information, etc.

Incumbent information

Rivière-du-Loup–Montmagny / Rivière-du-Loup–Montmagny
MP: Paul Crête (Parliamentary Internet)
Bloc Critic - Industry

May 31, 2005

Dear Hon. David Emerson, Minister of Industry,

I am enclosing an article about Software Patents that describes the worldwide market situation, with specific reference to the special interest lobbying in the European Union. The European Patent Convention (EPC) was signed by its core member states in 1973 and went into force in 1978, when the European Patent Office (EPO) was established on its basis. The EPC specifically excluded "schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers" (reference 1) from patentability based on very sound public policy reasons. There is now a powerful lobby, including software companies facing major competitive threats from alternative business models, that are seeking to remove these important exclusions.

Dear Honourable Liza Frulla,

Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

Two important decisions were made available to Canadians today. In parliament a few hours ago, by the narrowest of margins, the Liberal government survived a non-confidence vote. This morning the Federal Court of Appeal handed down a decision that confirmed that the privacy rights of Canadians would be respected on the Internet.

Your words, as quoted by the media around the Junos, suggest that you had had not read or understood the earlier decision of the Federal Court by the Honourable Mr. Justice von Finckenstein (Citation: 2004 FC 488) that was being appealed. You falsely claimed that Canadian copyright law needed to be changed in order to clarify that unauthorized distribution of music via the Internet was illegal. You falsely claimed that the recording industry did not already have the legal tools to sue. Given this, I am including a copy of the appeal of this decision with the hopes that you will read it, and stop spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) about Canada's copyright act. If Canadians are confused about the legality of unauthorized distribution of music via the Internet, I believe you should accept some personal responsibility for this given your own words have suggested something that simply is not true.

The following letter was sent by Russell McOrmond to the Honourable Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage, in reply to a letter received. It was also copied to the "discuss" forum.

Dear Honourable Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

I would like to thank Luc Rouleau, Director, Ministerial Correspondence Secretariat, for the reply letter dated April 12, 2005. I made that letter publicly available so more Canadians may read the government response: http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/4734

Michael Geist's article suggested we contact MPs about Digital Rights Management (DRM, also called "copy protection", or "technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights"). My letter copied to the Industry and Heritage ministers and critics was copied to the Discuss forum.