Senator Housakos: Jean Chrétien, a great prime minister who made a great appointment. I don’t want to leave out, of course, Prime Minister Chrétien and Prime Minister Martin. I’ve been here so long, Senator Cordy, my memory is starting to fog up.

To continue my train of thought, we all have an obligation to our constituents. When we give a mandate to our committee to go do the robust, in-depth study that we did and hear so many voices, literally millions of people, user-generated content producers — which means, again, in brackets, Canadians: your kids, your nephews, my children, artists, singers — when these individuals come to us as their last hope because they see a piece of legislation that is riddled with potential dangers — and there is a possibility the CRTC will do the honourable thing, and there is a possibility that politicians and Heritage Canada will be true to their word.

However, I see no obstacle here — no issue why particular amendments that were put forward by Senator Miville-Dechêne and Senator Simons that were so responsive to the outcry of citizens — this isn’t a political agenda; this isn’t a partisan issue. This is senators from all groups at committee who heard a large constituency of Canadians who said, “Please, take this issue outside of the pressure cooker of politics of the House of Commons and do the right thing, apply your sober second thought, make the amendments that give us a chance and give us a sense of confidence that the government will not get in our way and destroy our successes.”

Senator Plett: Hear, hear.

Senator Housakos: Oh, so Senator Cordy and Senator Massicotte.

Senator Housakos: Would Senator Cotter take a question?

Senator Cotter: I will make two observations, if I may, Senator Housakos.

The first is that there is a very good chance that, at some point in the future, someone will make observations like you have just made, and you will respond just like I have.

My second observation is that the argument you make is premised on the idea that a continued assertion of parliamentary authority by a non-elected body is one of the ways to improve public confidence in this chamber and the institution of the Senate, and I think that’s a very debatable proposition. Thank you.

Senator Housakos: That is an excellent question, Senator Dalphond.

First of all, as you know, our small group of Conservatives speaks for the majority of Canadians, since we won the majority of votes in the last election. This is an important vote, and we still won more votes than the party that was in power. We won more votes than the current government in two consecutive elections.

It goes without saying that even a democratic parliamentary system is perfectly imperfect. I would also point out that the government is of course elected based on its electoral platform. However, we must not forget that in any election platform, like the Liberal Party platform, it is one thing to say that the Broadcasting Act will be reformed. But the details of the reform process aren’t included in the election platform. The details come later, in a bill, and if there’s any time for the upper house to do its job, it’s to study all the details. An election platform is very general.

Furthermore, I would never argue that we should support a bill simply because reviewing it was part of a political party’s platform, since that is entirely contrary to the idea of the independence of this great parliamentary institution.

[English]

Senator Housakos: I’m standing with the digital-first producers in this country.

“User-generated content,” colleagues, is a digital term, and it’s Canadians. Every time you hear “user-generated content” or “digital-first providers,” just substitute the word “Canadians.”

I’m not standing up for Meta or Google. Unlike this government, I’m not standing up for CTV, Quebecor or Rogers either. If they have issues with their business model and they’re not feeling that they’re competitive enough, that is, philosophically speaking, for them to address. It’s not for legislation to address it or for me as a legislator or any government, Liberal or Conservative alike, to intervene in that particular marketplace to help a business model, because at the end of the day, I’m of the view, “Where does it end?” It has to end somewhere. We don’t have unlimited amounts of money. I know this current government thinks we have unlimited amounts of money, but we don’t.

The truth of the matter and why we’re so persistent, and why you see the subamendment from Senator MacDonald to insist on the amendments that we collectively all voted for — we voted for these amendments at committee; we voted for them here at this chamber. We did that not on a whim but because we are truly a chamber of sober second thought. We did all this because we heard so much testimony from so many witnesses about user‑generated content producers (Canadians) — millions of Canadians who came before our committee and pleaded with this institution.

We are their last hope. These are people who are creating on a daily basis. They’re generating income for the Treasury Board of this country. They’re generating content that is being spread around the world in a very successful way. We see now particularly young Canadians who have completely transformed themselves from the cable broadcasting industry; they’re all online.

As I have said this before in my speeches, I’m still of the old generation. At 9:00 or 10:00, I run to “CTV National News” to watch the news. My boys come walking by the family room laughing at me and spewing out all the news at me at miles an hour because they’re on all these platforms, and they feel they’re getting their news quicker, getting more options, getting more in‑depth news, and they call me a dinosaur.

The issue we have as an institution, Senator Cotter and Senator Dalphond — I listened to your speeches very attentively and I didn’t hear much being addressed in regard to Bill C-11. I did hear a lot of constitutional arguments about how this place is an unelected body. I heard arguments about how it is not our role to push back on government legislation from the other place because they have the elected mandate from the people and so on and so forth. But I just want to go back and remind everyone that it hasn’t been that long since Senator Serge Joyal — an eminent senator who, of course, has argued on behalf of the judiciary on this floor on many occasions what our rights and privileges are — has said many times, including on his way out of this place, that we have to be relevant, relevant to our constituency.

So to both Senator Cotter and Senator Dalphond, with all due respect for their arguments, I said to Senator Dalphond that probably what I do think will happen for years to come is the government leader of future governments will probably be quoting his speech on a number of occasions in the future. That is fine, because he put on his judiciary hat, as he was an eminent judge, and did a very good job at making a judicial argument on the floor, but I as a legislator have had the privilege of working at the feet and learning about Parliament from giants such as Serge Joyal and Lowell Murray and others who came before me.

More importantly, I also was privileged enough when I studied political science at McGill University — there was a professor named J.R. Mallory, who also taught me a thing or two, a renowned constitutional expert in this country. He told me that we live in a country where we have separation of the executive, legislative and judiciary bodies.

So with all due respect to judges who are now, of course, legislators, I want to point out that we have supreme constitutional authority on legislative issues, to step in and articulate and craft legislation to the best of our ability, listening to our constituents, even though we’re not elected. I know we’re all appointed by a prime minister — Prime Minister Trudeau or Prime Minister Harper; I don’t think there are any Prime Minister Martin appointees left — but, at the end of the day, we’re still accountable to our constituents, to our provinces.

Senator Housakos: Certainly.

Senator Housakos: Senator Gold, when it comes to combatting foreign intimidation and interference here in Canada with a foreign agent registry, your government has been kicking that can down the road for quite some time.

Senator Housakos: Including with an often-repeated announcement of impending and upcoming public consultations.

I understand that online consultations are under way and that Minister Mendicino did meet with a group of people in British Columbia last week. Even then, members of the diaspora communities were afraid to be found out and to participate.

It doesn’t help when your government is raising the spectre of impending internment. It just completely creates an atmosphere of fear amongst Canadians in various diasporas.

Regardless, I’m looking for a straightforward answer here because surely they have a process in place, but my question is this: What happens after this consultative process wraps up on May 9? What are the next steps? Will you commit to tabling in this chamber before May 9 the actual steps that will be taken following consultations on the foreign agent registry and with a specific timeline?

Senator Housakos: I will question him in private over a cup of coffee later.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Will Senator Cardozo take a question?

Hon. Leo Housakos: I would like to thank Senator MacDonald for his subamendment and his continuous support of user-generated content and digital-first providers.

We’ve heard a number of interventions this afternoon and this evening on Bill C-11. I just want to respond to a number of issues that are of deep concern.

In his intervention, Senator Cardozo talked about how the opposition and those who are opposed to the bill are somehow lining up with multi-billion-dollar digital corporations and platforms and so on and so forth. I’m starting to think that many of our interventions have probably gone unheard or are not really understood.

For those of us who are concerned, the concern that we have is not lining up with the digital giants. It’s the government, actually, who is lining up with multi-billion-dollar corporations. I said in my second-reading speech, my third-reading speech and in committee that we believe the whole purpose of this bill — and the government has said it outright — is to align traditional broadcasters in this country with digital platforms. Those of us who participated in the in-depth study at the Transport Committee, we understand clearly that digital providers are not broadcasters, far from it. They’re just platforms that actually help broadcasters and communication messages arrive to certain destinations more quickly, on a larger scale and in larger volumes. That is the actual reality of what digital providers like Facebook, Twitter, Google and all the other digital providers do.

We felt from the beginning that Bill C-11 is an attempt not to align broadcasters but, actually, to save the broadcasting industry, which we all acknowledge their business model is struggling. It is struggling because times have changed. What better testament of the fact that times are changing than having the CEO of CBC herself, a day after we passed the bill in this chamber or the day before, going public and saying how in a few years, CBC will be out of cable broadcasting and transforming their operation into digital platforms. That’s why you get organizations such as Quebecor running QUB radio, which is a full-fledged digital radio operation. They’re doing that because they’re starting to recognize the world is changing, and young Canadians are going toward that direction.

Senator Cardozo, let me tell you where I’m standing. I’m standing with user-generated content producers.

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Housakos’ time is up in any event.

It was moved by the Honourable Senator Batters, seconded by the Honourable Senator Wells, that the Senate now adjourn.

Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: I was hoping to ask a question of Senator Housakos.