SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/30/23 6:32:41 p.m.
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The hon. member for Haldimand—Norfolk.

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Mar/30/23 6:32:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in fact, we have not given up. We are the warriors who are fighting to preserve this heritage, because we know that this heritage can only be preserved if we have freedom of expression, and we have to ensure that governments cannot dictate what Canadians see, what they think or what they hear online. That is not the role of government. The role of government is to stay out of the lives of Canadians and let freedom reign.

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Mr. Mike Morrice (Kitchener Centre, GP)

Mar/30/23 6:33:22 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-11

Madam Speaker, I wonder if I can clarify something from the speech of the member for Haldimand—Norfolk. My understanding is that Bill C-11 already passed in this House back in June. I understand she did not support it then, and it is clear she does not support it now. Tonight, we are debating the message being sent back to the Senate with respect to the amendments that the Senate proposed, some of which the governing party disagreed with. Would she like to comment on that which we are voting on this evening?

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Ms. Leslyn Lewis

Mar/30/23 6:33:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think it is a travesty that the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc did not support the amendments of the Senate, specifically about excluding creator content. That would have done a lot to protect Canadian creators. It is a travesty that the Senate put so much work into that and that this House partially rejected it. I am proud to say that the Conservatives stood with the Senate proposals.

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Creators

Mr. Jeremy Patzer (Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC)

Mar/30/23 6:34:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I found it really fascinating that the Senate, which is filled with a lot of the Prime Minister's supposedly independent senators, was upset about the bill and was pushing back. I am wondering if the member has any thoughts about what the Senate was trying to do and how the senators were actually standing up for the rights and freedoms of Canadians.

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Ms. Leslyn Lewis

Mar/30/23 6:34:51 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think it is clear that this is one of the most dangerous pieces of legislation that have ever been passed in this nation, and I think the Senate sees the danger in the legislation, the danger of encroaching upon the freedoms of Canadians. I think that, as sober second thought, these amendments should have been taken more seriously by this House. The Senate spent a great deal of time, as the House of sober second thought, crafting these amendments to make sure Canadians' liberty and freedom are protected in the online forum.

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Mr. Rick Perkins (South Shore—St. Margarets, CPC)

Mar/30/23 6:35:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I think it is ironic that the members opposite do not understand that they are censoring the censorship bill. In second reading, the government and its costly coalition partner, the NDP, imposed closure, and then they used their coalition in the House to impose a rule on the committee study of the bill that did not allow for the amendments being proposed to even be read in the committee before committee members voted on them, which is another form of censorship and closure. Today, they are again putting closure on the Senate amendments. I would like the member to comment on this. On a bill that would restrict the freedom of what people can do on the Internet, why would we expect anything other than the government censoring it all along the debate?

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Ms. Leslyn Lewis

Mar/30/23 6:36:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is very sad. With the interest that this bill has generated among grassroots, average, everyday Canadians, it is very sad that the Liberals did not take this to heart but actually sought closure. We should have had prolonged debate on this bill so that the Liberals could convince Canadians that they were in fact not taking—

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Sad
Closure

The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/30/23 6:36:57 p.m.
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Resuming debate, the hon. member for Saskatoon—University.

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Mr. Corey Tochor (Saskatoon—University, CPC)

Mar/30/23 6:37:19 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-11

Madam Speaker, what is happening in Canada? The world is watching our nation and seeing a big, bossy government close down debate on censorship. The Liberals are censoring the debate on censorship. This is what the world is seeing. This puts us in the category of the Communists of Beijing and countries like North Korea and Russia. Putin would be envious of the ability to change the algorithms of his viewers to watch content online. This is a dangerous time in Canada. We have all had struggles for the past three years. The division in our country has never been as great as it is today, and now we have a government that wants to take it a step further, jumping on that raw nerve in Canada that distrusts government because of its actions on this bill. We are here tonight debating because of the forcing of closure on this bill. If people are watching this online, I am going to clip this and put it out there and hopefully if Bill C-11 does not pass they will still be able to watch this. People should like and share this right now, because this might be the last opportunity. People will be able to post things, but no one will be able to find them. This is what is in this bill. This is a layering-on of effects on our freedoms. Even this beautiful Parliament, where 338 people from across Canada are elected to bring our views here, to debate ideas and policies and directions for our country with respect to what is right and what is wrong, has been affected, even before this bill. We are taking a system of communication that has been a tool of democracies all over the world and we are taking a tool out of the tool box. There are problems in Canada. There are problems in our democracy. We have seen it with foreign influence in our country. We have seen that the state is now sponsoring media throughout our land, and when Canadians turn on the news, they are saying that it does not reflect their views and the Canada they know. Then they come to the realization that it is being sponsored by government and so they mistrust it. This goes back to the divisions that we have in our country. We have to come up with policies and ideas and laws that bring people together and not divide them. This is the problem that I have with this bill. It is another big, bossy government wanting to divide Canadians. Censorship has been in our history in the world. History does not always repeat itself, but it rhymes. We only have to look to the failed regimes around the world, and not even that far back in our history, to the 1940s in eastern Europe. In 1945, there was a vote in Hungary. There was democracy in Hungary in 1945. In the vote, the Communists finished sixth. By 1949, it was a Communist country. How is that possible? One of the tactics they used is called a salami tactic, where they just take a slice, and every time a little slice more and a bit more each time. Right now, this is what this bill represents. The government will tell its citizens what they can watch, what they can consume, how they should be thinking or what thoughts they should be portraying. I send pleas to the members here tonight to think about the impact if this bill becomes law in our country and in a future Parliament there is a leader who takes these tools and censors their party and their beliefs and what they want to post. This would take us into a country of Canada that I do not want any part of for myself or for my kids. The bill would allow one to post all one wants, and we heard this earlier tonight, but one's fellow Canadians would not be able to view it. We still have time to stop this. Later in my speech I will have two direct asks to Canadians who are watching live tonight or who are watching this online. I ask them to please, once again, like and share this video. I would like to go back to some of the struggles we have in Canada because our institutions such as this place, Parliament, are not functioning how they were set up to function. Everybody in here has probably had people phone their office and say that they were watching question period and that everyone was asking questions but they were not hearing any answers. The citizens of this country see this over and over. They hear questions asked that they want to hear the answers to. They phone and write and ask why the Speaker is not telling them to answer those questions. The problem is not so much that the Speaker needs to impose new rules on this place; it is how this was set up. We have freedom of press in Canada. How this place is supposed to work is that if we have an opposition grilling a minister or a prime minister and they are giving us garbage, the media would hound that minister or prime minister until they received answers to those questions. If they did not answer, it would heighten the question of what they are trying to hide. We are not getting that right now in Canada. We have some great journalists who are working hard on uncovering the truths of what is happening, but those stories are not being published. This is because, like I said, when states start sponsoring media, everyone questions the stories they are hearing. We know whoever pays the piper picks the tune. That is how this place is supposed to work. We should have the galleries full of media right now. We do not. During question period, we do not have media filling the galleries. It is because there are no stories; the opposition heckles. There is nothing they want to hear. I do not know how this is going to end. We heard the government talking about proroguing, which is cancelling or shutting down Parliament. That could kill the bill. The bill is going to be passed to the Senate, unless the Bloc and the NDP decide they are not going to vote for it later tonight. There are still chances. I am an optimist; there is still hope. The Canadians who are watching should not give up on hope. They can search out the petition we are circulating right now. They should be sure to sign up to get updates because we do not know what YouTube is going to show people in the months or years to come if this becomes law. However, they can have confidence. We heard earlier tonight from the Leader of the Opposition that one of the first things we would do is cancel Bill C-11. I know my time is limited. I would like to thank everyone for being here tonight. I have one last ask of the people watching online. They should please like and share. I ask them to contact their NDP member of Parliament, because they can perhaps get the courage to stand up for their convictions, vote against the government and bring the government down. We could then have an election that elects a government that will protect our freedoms.

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Mrs. Jenica Atwin (Fredericton, Lib.)

Mar/30/23 6:46:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it felt a lot like we were listening to a sermon of sorts with some of the fire and brimstone coming our way in regard to the bill. I wonder if the member would be willing to apologize to Canadians once this bill reaches royal assent, is implemented in Canada and inevitably the sky does not fall and it is not the end of times. Will he apologize for the fearmongering and the mis-characterization of this bill?

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Apologize

Mr. Corey Tochor

Mar/30/23 6:47:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, governments have always enacted things for people's safety. It is for their benefit, and it will all be okay, my hon. colleague has pointed out. The problem is that people will not realize that they are not watching the videos that they want to watch; they are watching what the government wants them to watch. That is the problem. This is how badly written this is: People will not realize that the content they consume in the future is what the government wants them to consume, not what the viewer is looking for.

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Mr. René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, BQ)

Mar/30/23 6:48:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is a guarantee that private companies cannot be held responsible for the comments that third parties post on their platforms. At the same time, the act already strengthens the protection of personal information. I would like to know why the Conservatives are saying that freedom of expression is threatened when the companies have the duty to leave the comments online.

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Mr. Corey Tochor

Mar/30/23 6:48:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I believe the analogy is a little bit about what is being spoken in the town square. The comment is that we cannot have people speaking their mind in the town square because it might go against other people's views. Instead, they would like to shut down town squares across Canada. That was in the past. How we consume information right now is online. Anything that changes what people are viewing online is wrong, and it is censorship.

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Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)

Mar/30/23 6:49:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is the craziest, wackiest speech that we have heard from Conservatives although they have, through this debate, been crazy and wacky at every single step. It is quite clear to Canadians that there is not a single Conservative who has actually read the bill because they all have the same speech: something, something, tyranny, North Korea; something, something freedom. We saw how devoted—

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Speech

Mr. Brad Vis

Mar/30/23 6:49:35 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-11

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, it is incorrect for the member for New Westminster—Burnaby to state that Conservatives have not read Bill C-11—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/30/23 6:49:45 p.m.
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This is a matter for debate. The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Mar/30/23 6:49:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is quite obvious that they have not read the bill. At no point in the hours and hours of debate—

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Read

Mrs. Laila Goodridge

Mar/30/23 6:50:00 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-11

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I have in fact read Bill C-11. Many of my colleagues have read Bill C-11. I think that it is absolutely important that we always make sure we tell the truth and the whole truth in this—

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès)

Mar/30/23 6:50:17 p.m.
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I am going to interrupt the hon. member right there. There are a lot of insults that have been flying around throughout the afternoon. I would ask the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby to refrain from inflaming the debate.

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