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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 312

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 9, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 312 - May/9/24
Mr. Tom Kmiec (Calgary Shepard, CPC)
  • May/9/24 10:10:27 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in yesterday's debate, I mentioned that I was one of the 18 parliamentarians targeted by this pixel reconnaissance attack from APT31. As I disclosed, this was not just any cyber-hacking group in their mom's basement. These were actually intelligence officers working for one of the subnational governments that the Beijing government loves to use in order to target legislators. I was targeted because of my work with IPAC. I want to ask the member this, because he just spoke a little bit about the impact on free speech that this has and about dissident groups. We have heard about it from other members as well. This has a chilling effect on diaspora groups in Canada and their interactions with members of Parliament. Therefore, it has a direct impact on our parliamentary duties and our parliamentary privileges to ensure that we can do this work on behalf of Canadians. The government responsible for ensuring our protection, as well as the protection of our digital devices and infrastructure, chose not to inform us that we had been targeted, despite having a moral and ethical responsibility to do so. Does the member think this has a chilling effect on people's interaction with MP offices to know that members of Parliament were targeted by foreign governments and that the government chose to do nothing about it?
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Context: House Hansard - 312 - May/9/24
Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)
  • May/9/24 10:40:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that Canada is being targeted, and the government is not doing the things it needs to do to be transparent about it. One of the things that all of us should be concerned about is the fact that so many members learned about that foreign interference through the media. That is not the way anyone should learn that he or she is being targeted. Could the member talk a little about solutions? With respect to the foreign registry, there is a lot of concern from ethnic communities that feel they are going to be specifically targeted, and they want safety. What are the solutions moving forward? What does the government actually need to take action on?
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