44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 27, 2023 11:00AM
- Mar/27/23 6:51:51 p.m.
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That is debate. As the hon. member knows, a certain leeway is given, but the hon. member has been talking about the bill.
The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.
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Madam Speaker, I am not quoting Nickelback tonight, so the Conservatives may not get the cultural reference, but I will quote Bob Marley: If the cap fits, let them wear it.
We are talking about how the Conservatives have used Bill C-11 to spread disinformation, falsehoods and paranoia to make stuff up. The member believes that Canada is going to be turned into North Korea. Who in the world back home actually thinks that Canada is somehow going to be North Korea if we make Netflix pay tax? Members should think about that for a moment. Who actually thinks that Disney is going to be forced to shut down and that this is all about the son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as the member for Lethbridge said, being able to block cat videos? I know the Conservative backbenchers probably spend a lot of time in the House watching cat videos. I do not know what else they do on the backbench, but I can assure them that nobody is going to touch their cat videos. They are okay. We are just asking Netflix and YouTube to pay their share of tax.
That might be the other element we have not talked about tonight. The Conservatives are more than willing to allow massively powerful corporations not to pay their fair share. Look at what they do with big oil. There is not a subsidy yet they do not think it is entitled to.
To get back to the bill itself, it is about making sure that we have a level playing field. We also have to address in this Parliament of Canada that the idea of using disinformation, fear and paranoia and stoking our base consistently is not a healthy thing. I have heard again and again about user content. The Conservatives hate the arts. Have members ever been at the airport and their plane is delayed?
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- Mar/27/23 6:54:02 p.m.
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The hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester has a point of order.
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Madam Speaker, that is a patent lie. I will be very clear. The member said that I hate the arts. My son is now in a program for musical theatre, so how could I possibly hate the arts?
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- Mar/27/23 6:54:22 p.m.
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The hon. member may bring up a point of clarification, but we do not use such words in the House, as the hon. member rightly knows.
We will let the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay finish his speech.
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- Mar/27/23 6:54:37 p.m.
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The hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester has a point of order.
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Madam Speaker, we also know it is very unparliamentary to accuse someone of lying, but I was starting to talk about the Conservative leader, so I know why the Conservatives are jumping in front of the bus to stop me.
Have members ever been in the airport and their plane is delayed? I will call my wife or sit and read a book. However, buddy beside me gets mad and starts shouting into his phone, and I ask him to stop because we are all delayed. That is the Conservative leader. That is what he does. If his plane is delayed, he shouts into his phone and is convinced that the son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau is going to block his user-generated content to rant about how his plane was delayed.
The Conservatives are not here for the arts. They do not believe in the arts. I have said that and I will say it again. If they are calling struggling artists “big union bosses” and they want to talk about user-generated content, then—
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Madam Speaker, perhaps I will say this in a clearer fashion. I have a son who is studying musical theatre. It is very clear: How could I possibly hate the arts?
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- Mar/27/23 6:55:42 p.m.
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The hon. member will have an opportunity to make those facts known—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès): That is not a point of order. The hon. member will have the opportunity to make those points in questions and comments.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. What is actually a point of order is that when you rise and somebody's microphone specifically turns off, they are supposed to close their mouth and sit down. This member continues to interrupt you and challenge your authority. I think he should put himself in order by respecting the Chair.
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- Mar/27/23 6:56:18 p.m.
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I think we are getting a bit warmed up right now. We are trying to keep an orderly House. I ask that we allow the hon. member for Timmins—James Bay to proceed with his speech. He has less than one minute to conclude, and then there are questions and comments that could be made during the 10 minutes following.
The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.
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Madam Speaker, I am really glad to know that my hon. colleague has a son. I do not know what that has to do with stopping me from talking about the failure of the Conservative leadership to deal with disinformation, falsehoods, paranoia and conspiracy.
I would think it would be in the interests of all our children if, as parliamentarians, we act like adults. Obviously that has not been happening with Bill C-11. I am going to be here all week. I sit and listen to disinformation and falsehoods every day, but I think it is really important that we are clear when we call it out.
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Madam Speaker, although my colleague talked a little about conspiracy theories, the Senate is the place of sober second thought. It looked at this bill in detail and brought in amendments, one of which is to try to exclude individual content.
The senators recognized that the CRTC really should not be determining what individuals are posting. Clause 4 looks at the extent to which a program contains a sound recording that has been assigned a unique identifier under an international standard system, the fact that the program has been uploaded to an online undertaking that provides a social media service, the fact that a program or significant part has been broadcast by a broadcast undertaking or that it is required to be carried on under a licence. This amendment was brought to make sure that those who are doing commercial business are overseen by the CRTC, but individual content is excluded.
The NDP, in their unholy marriage with the Liberals, have rejected this amendment. Could the member explain to the Canadian public why that is?
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Madam Speaker, I really want to thank my hon. colleague. I could say “Exhibit A”, and I could probably just sit down.
What is this “unholy marriage” stuff when it comes to parliamentary work? The Conservatives cannot do this without disinformation. I like my hon. colleague, but she was the member who believed that horse tranquillizers were going to help deal with COVID and ran on this obvious falsehood.
Let us talk about what the member is saying. I do not see anything in this bill saying that the son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau would be able to look at people's search functions. The Conservatives believe that, so—
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The individual on the other side of the floor continues to malign and treat other members in this House with great disrespect, as—
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- Mar/27/23 6:59:25 p.m.
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The hon. member knows that this is a matter for debate. On all sides, this is going on. There has been no name-calling. It is not unparliamentary language. I understand what the hon. member is saying, but it has been a very lively debate.
The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.
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Madam Speaker, I married my wife in the church. I have not been involved in any unholy marriages with any Liberals. Members could look that up.
Now, I bet there is probably a Reddit page run by Conservatives that would say otherwise. I feel the need to challenge that disinformation and that paranoia because I bet by tomorrow morning they are going to say that Klaus Schwab looked over the wedding, and it did not happen. I married my wife—
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- Mar/27/23 7:00:17 p.m.
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We are going to go to another question.
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Madam Speaker, I really want to thank the member for Timmins—James Bay for his intervention. I appreciated how he has been calling out some of the harmful, and frankly, disgusting rhetoric coming from the other side of the House.
Could the member explain to us what he thinks would happen to Canadian arts and culture if we did not have a Bill C-11 to hold these companies with market dominance on the Internet to account?
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Madam Speaker, this is a good question because, again, I am not totally sold that Bill C-11 is the best solution. However, I think it is a solution to making sure that the tech giants pay their share and that we actually pay into the arts system in Canada. The tech giants have not paid tax.
Again, I am sorry, but I have been in the House for 19 years, and I have never heard the Conservatives talk about artists before. Now, today, I have heard them denounce this as big art's union bosses, as though Jimmy Hoffa played the mandolin.
Their idea is whoever the guy is from Diagolon, right? They are YouTube broadcasters who are promoting ivermectin. They are worried about them, but I can tell them they do not need to worry. Nobody is going to stop all the insane conspiracy-driven hate and paranoia. However, we need to hold Facebook and YouTube to account for the algorithms because they are undermining democracy, and that is an obligation.
There was a time, just in 2018, when Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats worked together because we recognized that threat. What we are dealing with now is a Conservative leader who believes that there is an opportunity in spreading disinformation.
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