Hon. Paula Simons: I will be very quick, as I stand between you and your dinner.

Senator Housakos raises a perfectly valid point, and I agree with him that there is far too much leeway in this bill to allow for algorithmic manipulation and the curation of what Canadians see. My complaint about this amendment, however, is that I think it does nothing to address that concern.

If we look at the first clause that Senator Housakos intends to amend, he is changing the word “ensure” to “allow” so that the clause will say to “allow the discoverability of Canadian programming . . . ”, French and English “. . . in an equitable proportion, . . .”. I don’t see how that addresses the issue of algorithms whatsoever.

The second question has to do with the clause on page 14, which speaks to the presentation of programming. Senator Housakos’ amendment would simply cut off the sentence halfway, allowing for a sentence phrase that says, “the presentation of programs and programming services for selection by the public . . .”, leaving us with a sentence fragment that makes no sense and does not speak in any way to the concern I have about algorithmic rigging.

While I absolutely share Senator Housakos’ concerns — they are well founded and not out of proportion — I do not feel that this amendment does anything to address those very real concerns. I, with regret, will not be supporting it.