- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley
- Manitoba
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $99,486.97
- Government Page
Madam Speaker, there is every reason to think that the government will mess this up. For example, this morning, there was a story about the CBC taking the personal, private information of its employees and posting it online against their will and without their consent.
My colleagues across the way might say the CBC is an independent body, but the reality is the CBC is mandated as a Crown corporation under federal legislation and has to report to the Minister of Canadian Heritage on an annual basis. The government has some culpability in this. If we see the CBC messing this up, how can we trust the government to get it right?
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Madam Speaker, I do not have a lot of comfort that the government will get it right given how many years it dragged its feet on Huawei. I think we have every reason to be concerned that this bill might come out of committee without the necessary amendments.
One of the things I am particularly concerned about is the sentence I referred to from the bill that a minister can do or refrain from doing anything necessary to secure the Canadian telecommunication system. That statement needs to be measured against section 7 and 8 of the charter, which is the right to life, liberty and security of person and to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure.
We need to make sure that this bill can stand the scrutiny of the courts in case any business or individual affected by it decides to bring a charter challenge. I think there are serious concerns around the idea of giving a minister unfettered power, as one of my political heroes, Abraham Lincoln said, who I mentioned earlier in my speech.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Winnipeg North. It is always nice to get a question from a fellow Winnipegger. I love the Prairie pragmatism of his question on what amendments might we put forward.
The purpose of my speech and the speeches we have heard from our side of the House today is to point out the flaws in the bill. We will support the bill to get to committee stage and it is at committee stage where we can have a fulsome discussion with the experts about these flaws and come up with serious, practical amendments that make this bill even stronger. I think my colleague from Winnipeg North would agree it is in everybody's interest to make this bill as strong as possible.
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Madam Speaker, six years ago Statistics Canada found that more than one-fifth of all Canadian businesses were impacted by cybersecurity incidents, a sobering statistic in its own right. That was six years ago.
What we need to understand is that cyber-technology moves at a mile a minute. What is groundbreaking one year can become ordinary or obsolete even just a year later. I do not doubt that cyber-defence systems in Canada, both by the government and by private businesses, have become much more sophisticated throughout the last several years, but the technology used for cyber-attacks, whether by foreign or by domestic actors, has developed even more quickly.
We are seeing this play out in real time. Just a month ago, Indigo fell victim to a ransomware attack. Online purchases became impossible. In-store purchases could still happen, but only if one was carrying cash. Most alarming of all, information about the chain's employees was accessed. The situation continues to drag on, Canada's largest bookstore chain held for ransom. The emergency that Indigo finds itself in is terrible, but back in January the Russia-tied group that carried out this attack, LockBit, did something far more cruel when it hacked the SickKids Hospital in Toronto.
Those are just two examples of how cyberwarfare transpires in Canada, amongst thousands of other examples every single year. Today, particularly at a time when we know foreign powers are actively seeking to undermine Canada, its institutions and its critical infrastructure, it is time for the government to step in and put forward a cybersecurity strategy. It almost goes without saying that in this digital age, online systems run just about everything that keeps this nation up and running, including hospitals, banking and the energy that heats our homes.
What the government has failed to realize until now is that as these systems become more digitized, so too do they become more vulnerable. This was on full display when SickKids was hacked. Lab results, imaging results and the hospital's phone lines were wiped out for days before order was finally restored. Just in 2020, CRA was hacked, compromising the accounts of 13,000 Canadians. Bold action is what is needed to fight against attacks of that scale, and it is Parliament's job to provide that action.
When I look at a bill like Bill C-26, I start by thinking about what it would let the government do and whether that would be an improvement on our existing cybersecurity regime. In that regard, there is actually a lot to like here. Now more than ever, cyber-attacks can take place in little more than the blink of an eye. An attacker could dig its claws into a company's online system, inflict all the damage it wants, take all the information it wants, and it might be hours later than the affected company realizes what it is being done to it.
Having a rapid response to those incidents is absolutely critical. It is clear to me that the type of broad, sweeping powers contained in this bill would allow the government to provide that rapid response. It would also bring some much-needed cohesion to the link between the state and telecom providers. Right now, telecoms can decide to work with the government and prepare for a cyber-attack, but this is entirely voluntary. They can share information with the government, but only if they really feel like it.
As far as having a unified cybersecurity strategy goes, ours is laughable. It is about time that we act accordingly and fall in line with our Five Eyes allies. This bill covers such an important policy area, yet in so many ways it just does not get it right. It is another page in that long Liberal book entitled, “Having the right intention and making the wrong move”. I should not have to say this in a room full of parliamentarians, but here we are: the written text of a law actually matters.
A law needs to be clear. It needs direction. It needs guardrails. That is why it is so strange to come across a bill that lets a minister go up to a telecom provider and make them “do anything, or refrain from doing anything, that is necessary to secure the Canadian telecommunications system.” All the power goes to the minister with nothing in the way of guardrails constraining their power.
When I read this part of the bill, I was reminded of one of my favourite Abraham Lincoln quotes. Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” That is what this section does, it provides immense power to the Minister of Industry, which is not abridged or protected in any way.
There is nothing wrong with a law that gives the government new powers, but in this case, with the cyber-threats that we are currently facing, that type of law is exactly what we need to get right now.
The problem here is that we are debating a bill today where those new powers are not specified and are not restricted whatsoever. Alongside the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, I am seriously concerned about the way that Bill C-26 would infringe on the privacy rights of Canadians.
This bill would allow the government to collect data from telecoms. With guardrails in place, this would actually make a lot of sense. The government might want to see the weak spots in a company's cybersecurity system, for example. With the government being able to get these companies to do anything, we do not have a clue what it will demand to collect.
As it stands now, there is no way of stopping them from collecting personal data and juggling it between various departments. Foreign affairs, defence, CSIS, anyone could take a look if the state decides that it is relevant.
At the minister's discretion, the data could even go to foreign governments. Again, this all comes back to the problem of unchecked power. With zero restraints in place, we can only assume the worst. Like so many bills under the Liberal government, what we are seeing here is a government-knows-best approach.
I am really not sure how it can defend this level of information sharing. “Well, yes, we could share one's personal information, but we definitely will not do that.”
It wants Canadians to give it the benefit of the doubt. The government is well past the point of being given the benefit of the doubt.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says that the bill is “deeply problematic and needs fixing”, because “it risks undermining our privacy rights, and the principles of accountable governance and judicial due process”.
A number of organizations and individuals have raised red flags. The Business Council of Canada wrote to the Minister of Public Safety, expressing the business community's concerns about Bill C-26, including the potential of brain drain, as the result of personal liability and unduly high monetary and criminal penalties.
The council also expressed concerns that information sharing is one-way. Operators are required to provide information to government but receive nothing back from government.
The bill misses the opportunity to implement an information-sharing regime that could benefit all operators subject to the law.
Aaron Shull, managing director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation said that Ottawa should deploy a wide range of strategies, including tax breaks to individual small businesses, to take cybersecurity more seriously.
The Munk School issued a report on Bill C-26 where they itemized a series of deficiencies including that “the breadth of what the government might order a telecommunications provider to do is not sufficiently bounded.”
There are massive, glaring issues in Bill C-26.
What is so unfortunate about this is that I think that enhancing Canada's cybersecurity is something that all parties can get behind. I am willing to see this bill move forward but it is going to need some major amendments in committee, amendments that protect civil liberties and constrain abuse.
There needs to be a threshold test, providing that an order being given by the government is proportionate, reasonable and, above all else, necessary. The minister should have to table reports, annually perhaps. How many orders did they issue in a given year? What kinds of orders, broadly speaking?
If the government mishandles someone's personal information, which it likely will, this bill needs to make it clear that those people will be compensated.
We find ourselves debating another highly important, poorly crafted bill, courtesy of the Liberal government.
I want to see this bill go to committee so that experts, especially those with a focus on civil liberties, can help make this bill work.
To be clear, if the issues in this bill concerning privacy and impacts to businesses are not addressed, the Conservative Party is ready to pull its support immediately and put up a very strong defence to stop this bill from going beyond committee.
After all, if the Liberals cannot manage Canada's cybersecurity, they can just get out of the way and let Conservatives handle it.
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