Procedure and House Affairs
Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 11th, 2019
Evidence of meeting #149 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was election.
A video is available from Parliament.
Safeguarding the 2019 General Election and the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force
Committee Business
MPs speaking
Larry Bagnell
David Christopherson
Karina Gould
Scott Simms
Scott Reid
Stephanie Kusie
Nathan Cullen
Linda Lapointe
Also speaking
Clerk of the Committee Mr. Andrew Lauzon
André Boucher Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Communications Security Establishment
Karina Gould Liberal Burlington, ON
For the integrity of the process, the parties will not be informed of whether an incident is brought to the panel.
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
As I said, we would appreciate a lot more information in regard to the criteria. We know that in other jurisdictions, adversaries have used social media to manipulate the public, and to create and polarize political and social issues. Similar to my question before, what concrete initiatives have you employed to ensure that this type of influence does not happen here in Canada leading up to the 2019 election?
Within Bill C-76, as was noted, social media platforms have been banned from knowingly accepting foreign funding for political advertisements. They are also required, if they do receive political advertisements during the pre-writ and writ periods, to have an ad registry to disclose that information. Those are two really important steps that have been taken that address some of the previous issues we've seen around the world with regard to how social media platforms were manipulated.
In terms of other conversations we've been having with social media platforms, I have discussed with them the idea of a "Canada too" concept for activities they've been willing to undertake in other jurisdictions to safeguard those elections—that they do that here in Canada as well, and that they label bot activity on their platforms. Canadians should know if they're interacting with a person or with a bot when they're interacting online. They should be monitoring for authentic behaviour as well. I do know that the platforms are monitoring this space, and that they are actively removing accounts they find to be problematic. We would just like more clarity and more transparency in those activities, so that Canadians can have greater confidence in the activity they're seeing online.
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Thank you very much, Minister. We appreciate that, and I'm sure we'll see you again.
We have 17 minutes left. We have just a couple things for the whip, as I said, before the break.
Scott, one of the things we asked about is the time we meet with the Australians—Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Which time were you saying?
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
I originally said 7 p.m. However, after receiving a wave of apprehension and hate—maybe that's a strong word—six o'clock is fine.
We would meet at six o'clock. Would that be on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
We're not sure which Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday it would be.
It would be the first or second week back.
To state the obvious problem with some of these days, we could be running into votes at that time, which could throw things off. This is relevant to Scott. The problem with trying to schedule something for 6 p.m. on a Tuesday or Wednesday is that it's right in the middle of when votes are likely to be. We stand a very good chance of standing up our Australians, after they've gone to the trouble of arranging to be there for us. Notwithstanding those who expressed hatred and loathing towards you at an earlier point in time, I am concerned that by choosing six instead of seven, when votes are typically over, we could create a situation where they're cooling their heels for an hour. That is, I think, a meaningful consideration.
Would you like to hold the meeting at seven?
Seven would be my own preference.
That's seven o'clock and 8:30 in Newfoundland?
We will meet at seven o'clock on the earliest Tuesday possible that the Australians are available. Is that okay?
Chair, before we adjourn to go to vote, could we perhaps vote on the motion I put forward, please?
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I have a question on that. Do we have proper notice of that? I have a notice of motion from Ms. Kusie, but it's not that motion.
Wait a second. There's something else I want to finish first.
On the debates commission estimates, I know you had the witnesses you wanted. Can you just say that?
We'd do one hour for each of them.
The Conservatives are proposing one hour with the debates commissioner, and one hour with the minister, on the debates commission's main estimates.
That sounds good to me.
Does everyone agree?
We agree. They're separate hours.
Is it concurrent or consecutive?
As soon as they're available....
There's one other thing, Ms. Kusie, before we go to your motion.
Mr. Reid, could you hold up those reports? Do you still have them?
I do, as a matter of fact. I will return them to you.