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House Hansard - 316

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 23, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • May/23/24 8:44:26 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, by way of addressing a couple of points on extortion, what I would indicate for the benefit of the House is that we have announced an RCMP national coordination and support team to help coordinate investigations of extortion, and that extortion remains subject to a maximum life imprisonment penalty, which the Supreme Court has indicated demonstrates the seriousness of the offence. With respect to the question about Bill C-63, I welcome this question. Keeping kids safe is everyone's responsibility in this chamber. This legislation, Bill C-63, would require a takedown within 24 hours of any material that constitutes child sex exploitative material. It would require a risk analysis and a risk reduction of material that induces a child to self-harm or bullies or intimidates a child. That is about doing right by people like Amanda Todd's mother and Rehtaeh Parsons' mother and so many kids who are being sextorted and exploited online.
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Ms. Lena Metlege Diab
  • May/23/24 8:45:17 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, I want the minister to speak a little more on this specific topic. I actually received a number of communications in my constituency from parents and grandparents who are very concerned about their children and about the fact that they are so preoccupied these days with online platforms. In fact, my recollection is that the justice minister was at our Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and he said that the most dangerous toys that Canadian families have are the screens their children use. Can the minister explain that a little further and speak a little more about the measures in Bill C-63? I think that fundamentally it is a very alarming topic to many in my constituency and across the country.
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:46:28 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, what I said at that committee, I will say again here: the Lego in my basement is subject to more restrictions than the screens my children are on. That has to change. We need to change the incentivization on social media companies from monetary incentivization to safety incentivization. This legislation would create a duty to protect children and a duty to remove content. I hope the opposition is listening. The prosecution would be facilitated, in terms of child sex predators, by making changes to the Mandatory Reporting Act, such that the evidence must be preserved for one year. Someone will have up to five years to lay a charge. All entities, including social media companies, must report, and they must report to a central clearing facility. That is critical to facilitating the prosecutions. That is what law enforcement has asked us for. That is what the mothers and fathers affected by things like sextortion around this country have asked us for. That is what will help keep kids from being induced to self-harm, which includes, sadly and tragically, suicide in the case of Carson Cleland in Prince George, B.C., and so many other children around this country. What we understand from the Centre for Child Protection is that 70 times per week they get notifications of sextortion, and that is only the kids who are coming forward. It is critical to address this issue with haste. We need to pass Bill C-63 at second reading and get it to committee to hear from experts about the pressing need for this bill.
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Ms. Lena Metlege Diab
  • May/23/24 8:47:48 p.m.
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Madam Chair, hate is on the rise in Canada. In fact, at our committee right now, we are studying anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We could study anti anything these days. I believe there is so much going on in the world that people just want to express their anger, and there is a lot happening. It is alarming ,and it is distressing to hear numerous accounts of hatred against people in our public forum. I firmly believe that hatred should have no place in Canada, but we do know that it exists. All people should feel and must feel safe to express themselves online and off-line. We know that is not the case. I want to ask the Minister of Justice to please discuss this and to elaborate a bit further on what we can do to keep people safe from hatred.
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:49:02 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-63 
Madam Chair, I would say that we can start by moving with pace on Bill C-63. It talks about the fact that hate crimes are up 130% over the last five years in this country. We know that the hatred people are exposed to online has real-world consequences. Look no further than the trials of the individuals who were killed at the Quebec City mosque and the trials of the Afzaal family, who were killed in London, Ontario. How do we cure this? We take a Supreme Court definition of hatred and entrench it in law. That is something that law enforcement has asked us for. Again, I hope the members opposite are listening. Law enforcement and police officers have asked us for these changes because they want to facilitate the work of their hate crimes units in identifying what is happening and laying charges for what is happening. By enhancing penalties under the Criminal Code, by entrenching a definition of hatred in the Canadian Human Rights Act that facilitates discrimination complaints for online hate speech and by ensuring that we are having this content addressed by social media platforms, we can address this at multiple angles. This is critical toward keeping people safe, now more than ever, when hatred is on the rise, whether it is the anti-Semitism the member just spoke about, whether it is the Islamophobia we have seen with such fatal consequences, whether it is attacks towards the LGBTQ2 community or whether it is attacks against indigenous people in the Prairies. This is rife right now. The time to act is now, not at some future date, to keep Canadians safe. This must to be a priority for every parliamentarian here. Does that mean that we have the perfect bill? Absolutely, it does not mean that. I am open to amendments. We need to get this bill to the justice committee so that we can hear from experts about how a good bill can be strengthened further.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri (Peterborough—Kawartha, CPC)
  • May/23/24 8:50:44 p.m.
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Madam Chair, on what date did the minister say, “empirically it's unlikely” that Canada is less safe?
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Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • May/23/24 8:50:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the safety of Canadians is my fundamental priority. I have indicated that I have been briefed on the matter, and I understand that violent crime is up in Canada.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:51:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I should also say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Durham. I will be taking 10 minutes. I will ask this one more time to the minister: On what date did he say publicly that “empirically it's unlikely” that Canada is less safe?
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:51:22 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-21 
Madam Chair, the issue of safety is a priority for me, and I hope it is a priority for the members opposite. I am troubled by their opposition to basic premises, such as Bill C-21, which is about reducing the number of handguns in Canadian society and keeping women, like the member opposite—
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The Deputy Chair
  • May/23/24 8:51:35 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:51:37 p.m.
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Madam Chair, just for fun, I will ask one more time. On what date did the Minister of Justice publicly say that “empirically it's unlikely” that Canada is less safe? These are his words. On what day did he say it?
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:51:55 p.m.
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Madam Chair, keeping Canadians safe is a priority of mine. That is why we are addressing things like gun violence. I was a bit shocked during the supplementary estimates vote when that member voted against $83 million of funding, which would have helped with guns and gangs.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:52:08 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it was the Minister of Justice for Canada, and he actually said that on July 31, 2023. How many Ontario municipalities have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic?
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:52:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic, and I was quite clear in doing so in response to the Renfrew County inquest.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:52:32 p.m.
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Madam Chair, how many Ontario municipalities have declared intimate partner violence an epidemic?
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:52:40 p.m.
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Madam Chair, intimate partner violence is a critical crisis situation. It is an epidemic not just in Ontario, but also around the country. That is why we are targeting it through measures that relate to—
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The Deputy Chair
  • May/23/24 8:52:49 p.m.
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The hon. member.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:52:51 p.m.
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Madam Chair, is it not interesting that the minister says that, yet he also said that it is empirically unlikely that Canada is less safe? It is 94 municipalities. In Ontario, how many women were killed in a 30-week window between 2022 and 2023?
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Hon. Arif Virani
  • May/23/24 8:53:09 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am encouraged by the member's passion for addressing domestic violence; it's got to be a passionate priority for all of us. I am discouraged by the fact that when we introduced legislation that would have things like a red flag law to take a gun away from an abusive spouse, the member voted against it.
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Ms. Michelle Ferreri
  • May/23/24 8:53:24 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is very interesting that the minister brings up guns and does not want to answer the question. There was a man who killed a woman in front of a Calgary elementary school. He was under a no-contact order. What did he murder her with?
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