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Maxime Guénette
View Maxime Guénette Profile
Maxime Guénette
2019-07-15 14:56
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon to all committee members.
My name is Maxime Guénette. I'm assistant commissioner of the public affairs branch and chief privacy officer at the Canada Revenue Agency. With me today is my colleague Gillian Pranke, deputy assistant commissioner of the assessment, benefit and service branch at the CRA.
The CRA is an organization that touches the lives of virtually all Canadians. We're one of the largest holders of personal information at the Government of Canada. We process more than 28 million individual income tax returns annually. It's therefore critical that the CRA has an extensive privacy framework in place to manage and protect personal information for all Canadians.
Integrity in the workplace is the cornerstone of agency culture. The agency supports its people in doing the right thing by providing clear guidelines and tools to ensure privacy, security and the protection of personal information, our programs and our data.
The agency is subject to the Privacy Act and associated Treasury Board policies and directives for the management and protection of Canadians' personal information. Section 241 of the Income Tax Act also imposes confidentiality requirements on its employees and others with access to taxpayer information.
The agency also adheres to the policy on government security and direction provided by lead security agencies like the Communications Security Establishment and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
In April 2013, the agency appointed its first chief privacy officer, who is also responsible for the access to information and privacy functions within the agency.
Part of my role as the chief privacy officer is to ensure that the CRA's respect for the privacy of the information it holds is reinforced and strengthened by overseeing decisions related to privacy, including assessing the privacy impacts of our programs; championing privacy rights within the agency, including managing internal privacy breaches when they occur; and reporting to CRA senior management on the state of privacy management at the agency.
Our responsibility for sound privacy management goes beyond appointing a chief privacy officer, though. It's a responsibility that all employees share.
Protecting the CRA's integrity includes ensuring that we have the proper systems in place to safeguard sensitive information from external threats. Agency networks and workstations are equipped with malware and virus detection and removal software, which are updated daily and protect the CRA environment from the increasing threat of malicious code and viruses.
At the agency employee level, computers are secured with a suite of security products ranging from anti-virus software to host intrusion software.
External services are conducted on secure platforms and protected by firewalls and intrusion prevention tools to detect and prevent unauthorized access to agency systems.
During online transactions we ensure that all sensitive information is encrypted when it is transmitted between a taxpayer's computer and our Web servers. Regardless of how Canadians choose to interact with the agency, they must complete a two-step authentication process before gaining access to their account.
These steps are crucial to making sure that access to personal information is only available to authorized individuals. The process includes validation of a number of personal and confidential data points, including a person's social insurance number, their month and year of birth, and information from the previous year's income tax return.
The CRA will shortly also be implementing a new personal identification number for taxpayers who choose to use it when calling the individual inquiries line. In addition, the CRA is currently examining additional security procedures to safeguard the information of taxpayers. As cybercrime and phishing scams become more sophisticated and commonplace, the CRA is being proactive in warning the public about fraudulent communications claiming to be from the CRA.
One very simple way in which taxpayers can safeguard against fraudulent activity is to sign up for My Account, or for businesses to sign up for My Business Account, so that they can use the CRA's secure portals to access and manage their tax affairs easily and securely. When an individual is signed up for My Account, they can also sign up for online mail in order to receive account alerts informing them of possible scams or other fraudulent activity that may affect them.
CRA is proud of its reputation as a leading-edge organization committed to excellence in administering Canada's tax system. However, inappropriate fraudulent activity can occur in the workplace. CRA has incorporated a broad array of checks and balances to ensure that those who access taxpayer information are strictly limited to employees required to do so as part of their job and to detect misconduct when it does occur.
Monitoring of employees' access to taxpayer information is centralized, ensuring an independent process that enables the agency to detect and, if necessary, address any suspect transactions in our systems. This provides assurance that authorized users are accessing only the applications and data they are allowed to access based on strict business rules.
In 2017 the CRA implemented a new enterprise fraud management solution, which complements existing security controls and further reduces the risk of unauthorized access and privacy breaches. This solution enables proactive monitoring and detection of unauthorized access by CRA employees. Any allegations or suspicions of employee misconduct are taken very seriously and are thoroughly investigated. When wrongdoing or misconduct is founded, appropriate measures are taken, up to and including termination of employment. If criminal activity is suspected, the matter is referred to the proper authorities.
Upon hire, agency employees are required to read and acknowledge the agency's code of integrity and professional conduct and the values and ethics code for the public sector.
The code clearly outlines the expected standard of conduct, including the obligation to protect taxpayer information in accordance with section 241 of the Income Tax Act. Unauthorized access to taxpayer information is considered to be serious misconduct, as reflected in the agency's directive on discipline.
The code ensures that current and former employees are aware that the obligation to protect taxpayer information continues even after they leave the CRA. All employees are asked to review and affirm their obligations under the CRA's code of integrity every year.
In the event a privacy breach does occur, it is assessed in accordance with TBS policy and procedures to document and evaluate all potential risks to the affected individual. In such a case, the CRA offers support to the affected individual through a dedicated agency representative so that the client has the opportunity to ask questions and find information as well as, on a case-by-case basis, get access to free credit protection services.
On the rare occasion when a taxpayer's information is confirmed to have been compromised, the CRA will act to resolve all outstanding issues. This includes reviewing all fraudulent activity that may have occurred in the account, including fraudulent refund payments.
We at the agency are deeply committed to safeguarding the trust Canadians place in our organization, and to meeting their expectations that we have the right checks and balances in place to secure the information entrusted to us. We have worked hard to earn the public's trust, because it is the foundation of our self-assessment tax system.
A good reputation takes years to establish. We safeguard it by remaining vigilant in our efforts to protect taxpayers from security breaches and to protect Canada's tax administration system from misconduct and criminal wrongdoing.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Daniel Bernhard
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Daniel Bernhard
2019-05-30 16:43
Sure. I'll turn it over to Jim Thompson.
If you'd like to see the full results of the poll, you can see them there on friends.ca, but Jim will have some more specific information for you.
Lori MacDonald
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Lori MacDonald
2019-05-30 9:01
Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting me to address this committee once again.
Canada is an increasingly popular destination for people who want to move to or visit this country. Every year, IRCC interacts with millions of clients including applicants for electronic travel authorizations, visas, permanent residents, asylum, citizenship and passports. Over the last five years, we've seen a significant increase in the number of clients who are seeking support, both on the telephone and by email. In fact, the recent federal budget recognizes growing demand, allocating new funds for increasing the number of IRCC call centre agents.
As demand for our services continues to increase, we recognize the need to transform the way we work so we can serve clients faster and strengthen our immigration system for everyone. While the volume of applicants is growing across our business lines, so too are our clients' expectations of quick, streamlined and electronic services. This means we must communicate with them more clearly and more often and ensure that our processes are clear, efficient and easy for both applicants and our employees.
The Auditor General's report highlights three key concerns we must address: difficulty in reaching call centre agents, lengthy wait times before speaking to an agent, and a need for clear, client-focused service standards upon which to measure performance and results. The findings of this audit also confirm that we must deliver accessible, timely and quality service to ensure that the country remains globally competitive in attracting newcomers. Today I'd like to describe some of the changes we are making.
IRCC employees provide support to clients through three channels: telephone inquiries, email assistance through the online web form, and social media. In addition to these channels, the department is working to provide clients with enhanced self-service options online.
The client support centre plays a significant role in communicating with clients. Last fiscal year, its agents responded to over 1.6 million client inquiries by phone and email, an increase of more than 12% from the previous year.
To improve the call centre and overall client experience, we have taken a number of actions. For economic permanent resident programs, we are piloting a new callback feature to give clients who reach our telephone wait queue the option of having an agent call them back instead of having to wait on hold. We are testing this functionality with this client group before expanding the service to other programs. We have also improved self-service features through our interactive voice response telephone messaging. This makes it easier for callers to obtain general and case status information without having to speak to an agent.
Budget 2019 announced $42.9 million over two years for IRCC to provide clients with better access to support when they need it. This funding will allow us to hire more call centre agents and expand some local Canadian office hours in 2019, and to expand hours of operations at the client support centre in 2020. As well, IRCC has lowered its email response time, from 31 business days in June 2017 to less than five business days as of March 2019. The additional funding received in budget 2019 will help to further reduce this email response time.
We know that to really address call volumes we need to address the root of the problem. One of the key reasons that people call and utilize ATIP processes is for information on their case status. We also receive many calls from people inquiring about the renewal of their permanent residence cards. We are making progress in reducing processing times in almost all of our permanent residence streams and have recently brought processing times for permanent residence cards down considerably. We anticipate that the progress we are making in these key areas will help reduce call volumes.
IRCC continues to look for new ways to improve the client experience and provide access to information. To provide clients with the information they need and to strengthen online access, the department has taken steps to make it easier for clients to navigate our website and to submit their online applications 24 hours a day.
Promoting self-service online for clients has been a priority. Our online help centre has over 1,100 questions and answers to top inquiries. We assure our web content is easy to use and understand, by writing in plain language at about a grade 8 reading level. We also optimize our web content to ensure it ranks high in search results, making it easier to find information. I think it's important to note as well that, before we launch new tools on our web templates, we do usability testing with people outside our departments and with clients.
Tracking the progress of case information is a high priority for many of our clients. To this end, we are testing new ways to better display case status information, to communicate processing times and to allow clients to track the progress of their applications. Our overall goal is to help clients with simple inquiries to access the information they need online, reduce their need to speak to an agent and, therefore, give agents a greater ability to focus on more complex cases.
IRCC is also working to finalize and publish service standards for its client support centre in our support services to make the department more accountable in its actions.
Before closing, allow me to note our actions to strengthen our ability to address a new and rapidly growing development: the substantial increase of social medial inquiries. In 2018, IRCC answered more than 130,000 social media general inquiries, seven times the total of the previous year and something we expect to continue to increase.
To help us manage these increasing volumes on social media, last fall we launched Quaid, a social media chatbot that responds to clients' general questions about immigration and citizenship. Quaid uses artificial intelligence to answer general questions from our clients on Facebook Messenger and continues to learn as it engages with people. Although this project is in its early stages, we expect Quaid will become more sophisticated with time and will improve our ability to interact with our clients.
Providing excellent client service is imperative so that Canada continues to remain globally competitive to attract visitors, students, skilled workers and new Canadians, the people who directly contribute to our overall economic, cultural and social prosperity. We will continue to act on our vision to transform how we interact with clients and provide the best possible support in the long term.
I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Walter Natynczyk
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Walter Natynczyk
2019-05-30 9:08
Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear today to address ways to improve our services to our veterans.
Our mission at Veterans Affairs is to enable the well-being of our veterans and their families, as well as commemorating the service and the sacrifice of all those who wore the uniform of Canada's armed forces.
As such, we appreciate the attention the Office of the Auditor General has brought to the services that we provide.
The bottom line up front is that the department accepts all of the recommendations and will develop a comprehensive action plan to implement all of the recommendations as soon as contracting and technology will allow. We appreciate how important it is for veterans to be able to communicate with the department in the ways and means they choose. We provide a broad range of options. They may choose a toll-free telephone service access through our website, through web-based My VAC Account secure messaging, over social media or by visiting in person any one of our 38 offices across the country.
lt is gratifying to see the number of veterans, both young and more experienced, connecting with the department through the online services offered on 'My VAC Account'. Through it, veterans can apply online for benefits and services, upload documents to complete their applications, track the status of their applications, view summaries of their benefits, and connect directly and securely with staff.
My VAC Account, which is our online web service, provided service for over 91,000 veteran users as of this past April, including serving members and veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces, veterans of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police and all of their family members. Monthly traffic is about 160,000 log-ins and continues to grow month over month.
Still, our national contact service network remains an important means for many of our veteran clients to communicate with the department. Our latest results show that 79% of calls are answered by an agent and that the average wait time for our clients is about five minutes. Clearly there is room for improvement, and we are committed to doing so.
Turning to service standards, it should be noted that the department regularly reviews our objectives to understand what we're doing right, and where we need to improve. Our 2017 External Service Standard Review found that our service standards were appropriate. Therefore the tasks at hand are to up our game, focus on improving processes, and reduce turnaround times.
We agree with the recommendations on service standards in the Auditor General's report and will seek veteran feedback when planning any future changes to service standards. In the near term, we are pursuing an approach to employ post-phone call survey responses to measure veteran satisfaction.
The Auditor General's report found that we did not always consider the needs of our veteran clients when making decisions about call centre services. One specific example is with respect to teletype service. When the department stopped offering a teletypewriter service for the hearing disabled, there was no indication from our records as to the rationale for this cut in service, nor whether there was consultation with veterans. This is not appropriate service.
As such, we are reversing the decision to ensure that all veterans, regardless of their injuries, can access our call services. We are also committed to ensuring that veterans with hearing difficulties can communicate with the national contact centre network.
With this goal in mind, we are extending our teletypewriter services that are currently in place for the veterans who are in crisis but with hearing difficulties to all the types of the calls handled by our call centre. We have identified a teletypewriter solution that seamlessly integrates with our current suite of equipment and will implement it in partnership with Shared Services Canada by the end of March 2020 or sooner, if at all possible.
Going forward, we also commit to considering the input of those we serve when making any plans that will affect veterans.
Members of the committee, Veterans Affairs Canada's mission is to support the well-being of our veterans. We are committed to improving our performance to be veteran-centric and strive for service excellence.
I thank the Office of the Auditor General for so clearly showing us how we could better serve our veterans and their families. Veterans Affairs Canada has already embarked on addressing all the recommendations in the report.
Thank you very much.
View Jean Yip Profile
Lib. (ON)
You mentioned customized service. Will you be using the online chat services where you do it one on one?
Harpreet Kochhar
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Harpreet Kochhar
2019-05-30 10:05
This is an important piece that we have already introduced, but it hasn't been taken up by the clients for multiple reasons. To customize somebody's data or update what they are looking for, in terms of information on a PR card or citizenship application and so on, we have a “my account” where they can log in and actually get that information.
When they call us, we try to go into the system, get all the information and also provide them with an indication as to where their application process is. That's more of a customization in terms of giving them actual information. That can be done by online channels too, and it's the choice of the client whether to go online and do that or to call us. Either way, we try to customize it accordingly. To do so, we also do a lot of user acceptability testing. We have a usability space through which we interact with clients and get that information so that we can make our programs more robust.
View Randeep Sarai Profile
Lib. (BC)
Did you notice the amount of effort—or lack of effort, perhaps—being made to enable call centres to officially call back? Is there a push to have people go to alternate channels rather than call centres?
You notice that about banks these days. You notice it in other industries. When paying your phone bill, if you have any questions, there's a real push to go online. In some cases, if you go to CRA, for example, it's almost impossible to find a phone number to contact them. It will lead you in almost every direction to not get a phone call or a phone number. It wants you to do everything digitally online.
Is that the case you found in these various departments, that there's a push to not call but to use alternate means—email, fax or go online—to access your own account?
Sylvain Ricard
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Sylvain Ricard
2019-05-30 10:20
I don't believe we can speak to that. We didn't audit the intent, if there was an intent behind that to reduce the service on the phone because it would be covered through other channels. We have not audited that.
As I said earlier, when you realize that 25% of Canadians need the phone to access government for various—and very valid—reasons, and you start an audit like this one, trying to make a difference, you see how transparent or clear the service standards are so that individuals who call know what to expect in terms of service level.
You need to have service standards in place. That's one of the recommendations we made: Have standards in place so that Canadians know what to expect, and management and government know how and where to improve. That's a very important part of the audit. It's about service standards, again, from the perspective of clarity for Canadians on what to expect. Service level is not for us to determine. Whatever it is, as determined by government and by management, is fine. We're just auditing against that requirement.
Avi Benlolo
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Mr. Avi Benlolo
2019-05-28 9:17
Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for having us here today and for actually doing this. This is very important work that you're all doing.
I'd like to begin my statement by first telling you a little bit about our institution. We're an international human rights organization. We have a network of offices worldwide, monitoring and responding to anti-Semitism, fighting hate and discrimination and promoting human rights. The organization has status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE and many other notable global organizations. Additionally, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has won Academy Awards and developed museums. We are currently building a human rights museum in Jerusalem.
ln Canada, we have won the Canadian Race Relations Foundation's award for our tolerance training workshops on the Tour for Humanity and in the classroom. We educate about 50,000 students each year, including those in law enforcement, faith leaders and teachers.
The organization has been tracking online hate for more than two decades. Twenty years ago, online hate was primarily found on websites. They were fairly easy to track, document and, in some cases, bring down through the help of Internet service providers. In fact, we used to produce an annual report called “Digital Hate” in the early days.
Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act allowed us to bring down several online hate sites simply by bringing them to the attention of the ISP. Our ability to sanction hate sites became limited when section 13 was repealed in 2013. We lost an invaluable tool that provided a red line for the public. If that tool was in existence today, it's unlikely that anti-Semitic websites based in Canada, like the Canadian Association for Free Expression or Your Ward News and others, would so easily find a home on Canadian servers.
The advent of social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like introduced a tsunami of hate into the social sphere. According to one study, roughly 4.2 million anti-Semitic tweets were posted and reposted on Twitter between January 2017 and January 2018. Conversely, according to Statistics Canada's 2017 hate crime report, there were 364 police-reported cyber-hate crimes in Canada between 2010 and 2017. Of those, 14% were aimed at the Jewish community.
I'm telling you this because this number is actually really low. You'd be surprised hearing this number, but it's low. I think it's low, given this recent Leger Marketing poll that showed that 60% of Canadians report seeing hate speech on social media. That would mean something like 20 million Canadians have witnessed hate online.
Moreover, through our own polling, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center found that on average across the country, 15% of Canadians hold anti-Semitic attitudes. That represents about five million Canadians. That's kind of the low end of that threshold; in Quebec, that number surges to an incomprehensible 27%.
Social networking platforms must be held to account for allowing online hate to proliferate. We note that these platforms have begun banning white supremacist and extreme terror groups. This is certainly one step forward. However, since they are operating in Canada, we must demand that platforms conform to our Criminal Code, specifically section 318 on advocating genocide, subsection 319(1) on publicly inciting hatred, and subsection 319(2) on wilfully promoting hatred.
lt's possible that Canada requires a CRTC-like office with a mandate to regulate online content and specifically ensure that online hate is curtailed. Indeed, one CRTC mandate is to “protect” Canadians. The CRTC says, “We engage in activities that enhance the safety and interests of Canadians by promoting compliance with and enforcement of its regulations, including those relating to unsolicited communications.” It's in their mandate.
That appears to be consistent with our interest here to limit the proliferation of hate online in accordance with Canadian law.
The Christchurch Call to Action to eliminate terrorists' and violent extremists' content online is a positive step forward. However, it must be implemented by Canada with concrete tools. Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center recommends the following actions that could help stem the promulgation of hateful acts against all communities through online platforms.
One, reinstitute section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act to make it illegal to utilize communications platforms to discriminate against a person and/or an identifiable group.
Two, the section should as well make platforms and service providers liable for ensuring they are not hosting hate websites and moderating their online social networking feeds. Fines should be imposed and criminal sanctions should be placed on violators.
Three, expand Statistics Canada's mandate to collect and share hate crime statistics from across the country. At the moment, Canadian policy-makers and organizations are mostly guessing. This is where I get back to those police numbers. We really are guessing at the extent of hate online and beyond. We need better information collected across the country to make better policy.
On that point, I held a hate crimes conference last fall and I invited Statistics Canada. It was the first time they attended a hate crimes conference with police units from across the country. I was shocked that this hadn't happened before.
Fourth is to improve police capacity and ability to track and respond to hate crime. Through our research, we discovered an inconsistency of hate crime units across the country. Some cities lack the resources to implement and deploy hate crime investigators, as you just heard. Last fall, we initiated the hate crimes conference. I'm repreating myself.
This country is lacking a best-practices model for policing hate crimes and understanding hate crimes and understanding the law around hate crimes and collecting and delivering that information to Stats Canada, which will in turn deliver that information to the policy-makers.
Number five is to improve communication between the provincial attorneys general as well as police when it comes to investigating and prosecuting hate crime and hate speech offenders. This will require additional training for prosectors and police officers so that victims of hate speech crime feel their needs are addressed.
We have specific examples that I can get into later about the mishandling in how the prosectors are working with the police and the disjointed communication between them in finding hate crime criminals and prosecuting them.
Number six is education. This is, for us institutionally, one of the most important elements. Education on responsible usage of social networking sites and websites is required now more than ever. We dedicate literally millions of dollars a year to deploying our educational programs to bring that to students. We have, for example, cyber-hate and cyber-bullying workshops, where we aim to educate students.
Even going to a website about the Holocaust is one example. How do you know which website is legitimate? How do you know which one is fake? Further education needs to happen in schools across the country so the students, the young people, the next generation will understand what hate speech and hate crime really are and be able to differentiate.
Finding a balance between protecting free speech and protecting victims of hate is essential. Our freedom and democracy must be protected. At the same time, we must recognize that there are victimized groups that need protection too, and leaving the issue to the marketplace will bring about unpredictable consequences.
Even The Globe and Mail admitted in an editorial last week that times have changed since the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a law in 1992 that made it a crime to “spread false news”. The Globe says, “Much has changed since then. Mr. Zundel printed and handed out crude pamphlets”, whereas today the same hateful message can be viewed by millions of people at once and inspire violent action.
We know this. The recent terror attacks in New Zealand, Sri Lanka, San Diego, Pittsburgh, etc., must motivate government and civil society to take immediate action. Terrorism can be prevented with the right placement of instruments, instruments that include a combination of enhanced legal measures, advanced monitoring and prevention, increased resources for law enforcement and hate crime units, and broader educational programs that promote tolerance, compassion and good citizenship.
We hope the committee makes recommendations for immediate amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act to end incitement of hatred on online platforms.
Thank you.
Bradley Galloway
View Bradley Galloway Profile
Bradley Galloway
2019-05-28 10:26
Good morning. Thank you very much for having me here today. I appreciate the invitation.
My name is Brad Galloway. I'm working as a research and intervention specialist with the Organization for the Prevention of Violence, which is located in Edmonton, Alberta. My main goals there are to take part in up-and-coming research, specifically on the far-right extremist movement in Canada, and more specifically, as of recent times, looking at the online dynamics of far-right extremism.
I often weave in my own personal lived experiences with the far right in Canada, as I spent 13 years within that movement in Canada, mostly at the beginning, in the offline context. However, I spent about 10 years operating also in the online context, so I know a lot about this online activity from an insider's perspective. I've used a lot of my experiences in taking part in some academic research as of recent times.
I'm also working with Life after Hate, which is another group that is similar to the Organization for the Prevention of Violence. We're looking at doing interventions and helping other people leave extremist movements. Some of those initiatives will definitely include looking at ways to build on online intervention strategies to intervene with people, and also providing resources for people who want to leave these types of movements.
It is my belief that communities are formed on shared ideas, experiences and cultures. ln order to distinguish and define themselves, groups compare themselves to others in positive and negative ways. It is in the latter that problems might arise.
A healthy, culturally diverse society is one that respects, accords dignity to and even celebrates the differences between cultures and communities. However, when groups start to distinguish and compare themselves in a negative manner to other groups on grounds such as race, religion, culture, ethnicity and so on, there is a potential for destructive and abiding conflicts. This leads to an us-versus-them mentality.
lt is in this sense that hate and extremism are interrelated phenomena that exist along a continuum of behaviours and beliefs that are grounded in this us-versus-them mindset. The perpetuation of associated rhetoric can create an environment where discrimination, harassment and violence are viewed by individuals as not only a reasonable response or reaction but also as a necessary one. When this is left unchecked, deepening, sometimes violent divides within society can undermine who we all are as Canadians and fray the social fabric of the country.
For the last 30 years, technology—first telephones and later the Internet—has played a crucial role in the growth of the white supremacist movement throughout Canada. Early versions of hate speech online in the 1990s and 2000s were being distributed through automated calls and websites. For example, the Heritage Front, a white supremacist group, had automated computerized calls spouting racist information. Other examples included the Freedom-Site network and the white civil rights hotline.
Beginning in 1996, we then saw the emergence of online discussion forums such as Stormfront, which notably was one of the first white supremacy websites and is still very active today. Stormfront was the first of this series of online far-right platforms and was used to communicate and organize.
Today we see more activity on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Gab, though most of these conventional forums still exist and are often used in conjunction with the new platforms, inclusive of apps. Often content removal or regulation are suggested to mitigate such sites and platforms. I would say that they both have their upsides, but they are very much faced with many challenges, both legal and ethical.
More with regard to the present, extremist groups and individual influencers promote social polarization and hate through available technology and are highly adaptive to pressing demands by law enforcement, governments and private social media companies.
Further, online hate speech is highly mobile. I would argue that these hate groups, and organized hate groups specifically, are using this mobility to further their transnational hate movements. Even when this content is removed, it finds expression elsewhere. Individual influencers are adaptive at finding new spaces.
If content is removed, it often re-emerges on another platform or under the name of a different user. Often the rhetoric and the networks move from established networks, where counter-speech can occur and where journalists and law enforcement are able to easily track their activity, onto platforms where detection is more challenging and where what are often termed “counter-narratives” are harder to deploy.
There are a multitude of examples, both domestically and internationally, of individuals who are promoting hate being kicked off one major platform—for instance, Facebook—only to move to either another major platform such as Twitter, or any host of smaller platforms, such as Gab or Telegram. Today’s online space is a more dynamic, immersive and interactive multiplatform online space than has ever previously existed, when there were only a few forums or a few telephone lines.
Influencers and propagators of hate distribute through multiple interlinked platforms. This new dynamic has demonstrably had an ability to mobilize hate-based activism and extremism, especially for lone-actor, violent extremists such as those who perpetrated the Tree of Life synagogue and Quebec City mosque attacks. The individuals who carried out these attacks did not necessarily engage directly with ideological influencers or a networked group, but they were mobilized based on the hate they felt and the sense of crisis they saw stemming from an opposing group.
What is the solution? I don't think there's any golden ticket solution. However, we believe that ultimately the first step in prevention and countering the propagation of hate speech and extremism is awareness, beginning with a better understanding of the nature of hate crimes and hate incidents online and off-line. We need better data on who is most targeted by hate and what the intersectional dimensions of targeting are—as in black, woman, Muslim who wears the hijab—and where these things take place. We need data on whether certain public spaces, like public transit, or certain public platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, are more conducive to hate speech and harassment.
In order to do this, there needs to be more incentive for victims of hate crimes to come forward. Often there is stigmatization, fear and skepticism around reporting a hate incident to the police. These issues need to be constructively challenged and mitigated through a multisectoral approach.
A recent example that I found is the proposed bill SB 577 in the state of Oregon, where they are also dealing with a rapid increase in hate crimes. This new bill requires law enforcement agencies to refer alleged hate crime victims to a new state hotline that is staffed by the Oregon Department of Justice, which connects callers to local mental health services, advocacy groups and other useful resources for crime victims. This allows victims to be in a safe, understanding environment while moving forward with a multitude of resources to address their hate experiences. It provides victims with some more resources and could increase reporting.
Online parallels are easy to imagine. Already some American non-profits are creating online resource hubs for people who have been doxed and had their personal information exposed. These resources could be repurposed and redeployed to address the issue we’re talking about today.
Many witnesses have likely discussed the legal challenges associated with changes to legislation. With the time I have left, I would instead like to touch upon some efforts that could occur further upstream of hate speech that don’t require legislative change.
View Wayne Long Profile
Lib. (NB)
Another question I had is whether StubHub.ca is the same as StubHub.com. If you go to one, is it the same as going to the other?
Paul Nowosad
View Paul Nowosad Profile
Paul Nowosad
2019-05-07 16:58
From an inventory perspective, it's a global marketplace.
View Pierre Nantel Profile
Ind. (QC)
Thank you.
Mr. Long asked you about StubHub.com and StubHub.ca. It's the same marketing. May I ask you, besides your 177 employees, what is the gross amount of your business in Canada?
Paul Nowosad
View Paul Nowosad Profile
Paul Nowosad
2019-05-07 17:12
I'm not at privilege to disclose our exact business revenues in the Canadian market.
Mr. Pierre Nantel: I'm sure.
Mr. Paul Nowosad: We do, however, have a growing office here. As to the difference between those two properties, we recently launched a separate website, StubHub.ca, in October of last year. The inventory is equal globally on all of our StubHub platforms. Whether you're in one platform or the other, you can still purchase the same events, whether it's a Canadian event or an American event or a European one.
View David Christopherson Profile
NDP (ON)
I appreciate that. Thank you for doing that so quickly.
I have one follow-up. I don't know a lot about these things, but that seems to be an awful lot of money to develop a website.
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