Senator Housakos: First and foremost, it’s the minister himself who has confirmed that these stations are operating in Canada, and he’s been misleading Parliament about what he has or hasn’t done about it. That is what the problem is here. Again, I repeat, it’s either incompetence on the part of the minister or his staff, or he’s deliberately misleading Parliament.

The next question that bears to be asked is whether this is the reason why the minister is dragging his feet in putting into place a foreign registry, a foreign registry that if the minister and government were serious about would have already been put in place. There’s a piece of legislation sitting in this very chamber that the government is dragging its feet on and doing nothing about. It’s very simple.

Either way, when will someone be fired for the absolutely disgraceful handling of numerous files by this minister? We see a foreign registry not in place. We see illegal police stations operating in our land. We see a brutal murderer in this country being sent to a minimum-security situation just because the minister isn’t doing his job and protecting the interests of public security in this country. We can’t get a straight answer in this chamber from the Government Representative/leader.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Honourable senators, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the sixth report of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, which deals with Bill C-18, An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada.

(For text of report, see today’s Journals of the Senate, p. 1831.)

Hon. Leo Housakos: Government leader, the government’s answer to my colleagues Senator Plett’s and Senator Boisvenu’s question regarding the competence of Minister Mendicino is shameful. Government leader, this is the truth of the matter: The problem isn’t that Minister Mendicino didn’t announce that Paul Bernardo was being transferred — the problem is that he played dumb once it was made public, and he acted like it was the first time he had ever heard about it. That’s the problem with Minister Mendicino.

It seems to be the default setting of Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Mendicino to play dumb every time they get called out — just as the minister was called out many weeks ago regarding his statement that all illegal police stations in Canada had been shut down, and then a few days later, we find out there are a couple of police stations still operating in our own hometown. The minister played dumb again, and, worse than that, he blamed the RCMP.

My question is very simple, government leader: Is Minister Mendicino playing dumb, or is it possible that he’s genuinely this incompetent?